Kansas City Zoo

Today, Mommy and the boys went to the KC Zoo! Cole has only been once before, and that trip was a class field trip with about 12,000 crazy kids running everywhere. So, crossing our fingers for a more pleasant experience this time, we set out. Today seemed like a good day since we were having a much "cooler" day with a high of ONLY 92 degrees predicted!

Chase is definitely an animal lover. So, naturally, he had the best time at the zoo. The poor guy did get tired of walking and we only saw maybe half of the zoo! (Trust me when I say splurge for the unlimited train/tram/carousel rides. Boy was I thankful for the transportation when it was hot and Chase was tired!)

Chase's FAVORITE animal at the zoo...the polar bear!!! We had to stop by and visit the bear at least 3 times. And, when it was time to leave, I had to drag him out of the zoo throwing a huge temper tantrum because he wanted to see the polar bear again!


























The polar bear would dive in, swim to where Chase was standing, then put his paws on the glass to push off and swim backwards. Chase loved it! In fact, if you look close...you can see where he went under the railing to put his hands on the glass to touch the bear's paw!


























Cole and Chase looking at the river otters.














Getting an up close view of the California King Snake. (YUCK!!! Do you see what a cool Mom I am? I mean, I'm terrified of snakes. TERRIFIED. Yet, I went in the snake house twice AND took pictures for my kids.)













Chase on the carousel.

















Two little monkeys!













A pretty Macaw that we watched for quite awhile!












































Cole on the train.













The African Sky Safari.....the BEST way to visit the African section on the zoo! We walked, and walked, and walked at first...until Chase couldn't put one foot in front of the other. And, then we stumbled on this sky ride! Cole was freaked out and wanted no part of riding on this. But, I may or may not have told him to suck it up and get on anyway...Chase and I were not walking all that way back!! Reluctantly, he got on, and held on for dear life the entire ride. But, he did it! (And, you should have seen him scurry off the minute we got close to the ground!)







































Cole on the carousel!



















Chase on the pink flamingo!

















Chase almost touched this bird! He wanted to, but about 1 second after I snapped this picture, the bird flapped his wings and scared Chase to death!

Tiny Tots Baseball

Chase signed up for baseball this year! Rather than playing on an actual team, Tiny Tots is designed for 3-4 year-olds and it set up more like a baseball camp to teach the fundamental skills. There were several stations: batting, throwing/catching, fielding, and base running set up and the kids would rotate through them.

This was a short season, consisting of only 4 practices (Thursday nights). The first 2 nights were on the baseball field, but due to the extreme heat we have been having, the last 2 nights were moved inside to an air conditioned school gym. Moving indoors was probably for the best for Chase, since playing on the baseball diamond really meant kicking dirt for an hour and not paying one bit of attention to what he was supposed to be doing and learning! Ha ha!

I'm not really sure that moving indoors really made all that much difference, really. Poor Chase just couldn't seem to focus on playing baseball. As you'll see below, this was mostly social hour for him! :)

Warming up before practice!


















Cole had a really great time this season playing catch and warming up with Chase before each session! Although, from the looks of his face, I'd guess that Chase wasn't doing what Cole thought he should be! Ha ha!

















Look at me, Mom!



















Being silly with Addie!













At first glance, this might appear to be an amazing action shot...some spectacular catch! Uh, sorry....no. Its really just Chase spinning in circles when he should be paying attention!


















Batting!














Getting his trophy! (However, he was more impressed with the CapriSun and brownie he received rather than the trophy!)














Look what I got!

Is this any way to spend a vacation?

This week, Mommy took a week of vacation from work. I felt like the summer had just flown by too quickly and that I really wanted to spend some time with the boys doing some fun activities! I had the week all planned out in my head....Kaleidoscope and Crown Center, Paradise Park, movies, and lazy afternoons at the pool. It was going to be fun!

However, those plans were quickly scrapped when, on Day #1 of vacation, Mommy and Cole woke up sick! I wasn't sure what was wrong, but hoped that we would feel better in a day or two. Boy was I wrong... This thing was hanging on. And, 3 or 4 days later, Daddy and Chase came down with it too.

The next day, the boys were scheduled for their "well visits" with the pediatrician. Only, we ended up sitting in the sick waiting room instead! We visited with Dr. Trites, chatted about all the things the boys were up to lately, and after about 20 minutes, she looked in Cole's mouth. She nearly into jumped into the next room and exclaimed, "OMG....you've got STREP!!!!" Poor Cole had to endure a throat culture (and it was probably a good thing he's never had one because he had to clue to what to expect! But, trust me...it won't be pretty the next time he has to have one done!)

Thankfully, the strep test came back negative, so the doctor concluded that we all had the coxsackie virus (hand/foot/mouth virus) as Cole's throat was covered in blisters. A quick check of Chase revealed the same for him too. *sigh* So...90% of my vacation was spent feeling awful or playing nurse to everyone else that felt awful! Even Daddy missed a day and a half of work...which is unheard of!

So much for that fun vacation I had planned.... We did manage to squeeze in one movie. Hopefully we didn't spread our germs to too many around us! (oops!) But, we just HAD to see Winnie the Pooh! :)












And, I've got my fingers crossed we can salvage the last few days of this vacation to still squeeze in a few fun activities!

Oh yeah...and the boys were not sad at all to miss their last 2 swim lessons....

Swim Lessons

The boys have been going to swim lessons this month! (And neither of them are very excited about it!) We've tried swim lessons with Cole before, and it didn't go well at all. But, I was hoping that the second time around might be better....

The first night of class, I was thrilled! The boys showed so much potential! Even though they were both scared of the deep water, they had instructors who just made them do what they were supposed to. No excuses, no talking about it. If the instructor wanted the boys to blow bubbles or float on their backs, they just took them by the hand and made them do it. I thought, "Great! This is what they need!"

The second night of class, we went back only to discover those great instructors were not there!!!! They had been replaced with "ok" instructors, but ones that were young and not forceful at all. In fact, Cole spent the entire class time clinging to the wall, refusing to do anything! Halfway though class, the instructor motioned for me to come to the edge of the pool. I did, and she said that Cole told her there was "something wrong with his nose" and that "he wasn't allowed to go underwater." WHAT?!?! Nice try! I told her that was not true and it was fine for him to get wet.

That conversation was then followed up with Cole yelling at the top of his lungs that his mom "was a LIAR" over and over...at the top of his lungs. *sigh* If I could have crawled into a hole, I would have! Needless to say, it was a pretty wasted night at the pool!

However, from that night on, the boys did a little bit better. (Or, maybe it had something to do with the fact that we threatened to throw them in the deep end and make them swim if they acted like that again!!!) They both did try a little harder after that night. However, Cole still refuses to put his head anywhere near the water...which makes floating on his back (and nearly everything else swimming related) quite the challenge!

Chase in the Great Depression

Daddy and the boys have been working hard all summer on the latest car project around our house...a 1929 Model A truck. And, tonight, Daddy decided to dress Chase up and make him pose for some pictures with the new truck!