Thirty out of forty-eight as two

Don't spend too much time doing the math, I'll just tell you.  This weekend we spent thirty hours out of the weekend as just the two of us.  Nine of those hours were spent sleeping, about eight of them driving, and maybe two eating; another three or so were spent loafing, then five spent at a wedding reception and three spent at a zoo.  Don't bother with that math either, it adds up to thirty (but wouldn't it be funny if it didn't and I was just testing you? After all, not enough people leave us comments). Was it fun to be just two?  Yes.  Saturday morning we headed down into Ohio territory (not Columbus, thankfully, but west and north of Akron) to attend the wedding reception of a dear high school friend of mine.  Even the drive down was fun, being able to talk at random about whatever we wished without having to either censor (don't ask) or explain.  The party was fun, too, and small enough that we got to spend some time with the bride and groom themselves, as well as dance and enjoy some wine, since we partied and slept in the same hotel.  Back in our room, just for the fun of it, we tried to stay up late, but found ourselves nodding off in front of junk TV that, since we gave it up in our home over a year ago, should have felt like a guiltier pleasure than the chocolates and sodas we were sharing between us, but only ended up being a big disappoinment.  Sleeping in, however, was everything we knew it could be, and when we finally rolled out of bed at almost 8:30, we actually felt refreshed and ready for the day (what sarcasm?).  But after an enjoyable breakfast with the bride and groom and their families, we hit the road and high-tailed it to the Cleveland Zoo.  If you've been reading this blog since it's inception over four years ago (that math you might want to check), you'll already know that we have always been zoo goers.  For the rest of you I'll just say that long before we even thought of children we were seeking out zoos to enjoy.  We zooed in New Orleans, in San Diego, in LA, in Orlando, in DC, in, well, everywhere we've been.  What was great about Cleveland is that our Toledo membership got us in free.  Well, that and the fact that the Mexican wolves were amazingly active, one of the rhinos was singing (seriously), the beaver was building something, and we got to feed a sea lion.  This is why we loves zoos–they are always different–and getting another chance to enjoy one again without that short three-year-old attention span was fantastic.  Don't get me wrong–I love going on zoo trips with Calvin, and the teaching and sharing opportunities that such an event presents, but being just two for a while really was refreshing.  I'm sure it would be awful of me to admit that we were so busy trying to get as much enjoyment out of our thirty hours as possible that we didn't really miss our son, but even if that is true, we were happy to see him when we got home.  Though he was so relatively spoiled while we were gone that I'm not sure opposite was true.

And you'll notice that I got way behind on posting and have caught up by shamelessly pre-dating my posts to the days on which I drafted their content.  There are three total new posts, so scroll down to see the other two, and over 50 new photos in the August 2009 photo album.  I'll try to do better in the future.

Make new friends, but keep the old

Oh that overused, very annoying cliche from my Girl Scout years!  I had to use it because it has a secondary meaning in this case.  I've mentioned before the joy that is facebook and its ability to reconnect us with our past (okay, sometimes that's not such a joy); In the past year, since I joined that adictive social monstrosity, I have connected, or reconnected, with over 300 of my "closest" friends.  What???  How did that happen?  Before I knew it I was denying friend requests and actually "hiding" certain people from my actions feed so that I would be able to find and keep up with the daily events of those I really care about (and if you're reading this, you're one of them, I promise).  But in that process, called social networking by those who actually know how to use it to their best advantage, I was able to find some of those people who really, truly, are good old friends, and those reconnections have been delightful. 

This week Calvin and I spent two separate days with two of my friends from my elementary school/Girl Scout years and their children.  The first day we drove over to Battle Creek to meet my friend and her son, only a few months younger than Calvin, at Binder Park Zoo.  We love Binder Park Zoo.  I can't say that the boys did too much interacting, although they were both equally intrigued with running in circles around the gazebo and waving to the train and engineer as it went by, but I had a great time catching up with my friend and meeting her children.  Also, we got to feed the giraffes, and that always makes for a great Binder Park visit.  Then today we drove to Plymouth to spend the better part of the morning and afternoon with another close friend and her daughter, only two days older than Calvin.  Those two, for whatever reason, are pretty wonderful together.  They actually play together, sometimes converse, and usually even take turns.  It's a match made in heaven, and I don't mean for them–I'm talking about us moms being able to sit and chat while the two kids play well together all on their own.  Really.  Heaven.  So whoever said you can't go back?  They were right.  But then again, who really wants to?  Especially when going forward is so darn much fun.

Zoo season is now open

Saturday was a zoo day.  How could it not be?  With temperatures nearing 70 and a bright spring sun gracing the our part of the world there was no place we would have rather been.  This was our first visit of the year, hence the "opening of zoo season" for our family, but it reminded us of how things have truly changed.  In years past, as in during the last three or so years B.C., there wasn't really any such thing as a "zoo season."  Jon and I would visit zoos all year long, enjoying such festivities as Oktober Fest at the Binder Park Zoo, Christmas Lights in Toledo, and Valentines at the Detroit zoo (our personal favorite).  We found quite often that the best times to be there were early in the spring when the temperatures didn't reach above the 50s and most normal families (is that what we are now?) were still at home basking in the heat of their furnaces.  It was always a strange dichotomy to spend our day hiking through our favorite zoo areas and our evening toasting S'mores by a fire in our own living room, but it was a highly enjoyable kind of strange.  So we might miss the freedom of subjecting ourselves to near certain frostbite temperatures just to see the Tigers enjoy the cold in earnest play, but sharing the zoo with Calvin is preferable by far.  So zoo visiting now has its appropriate season, but that just means we have to cram more into the fewer months in which we have to enjoy it.  And we are excited to say that said zoo season is now open.  Lucky you guys.  Now you'll get to see pictures of things like tigers and aardvarks instead of just Calvin.

Well, we've pet everything else...

...so why not giraffes?  This summer Calvin has ridden both a quarter horse and a dromedary camel, fed goats, llamas, sheep, and a bison, and pet an  armadillo and a fennec fox (in addition to the aforementioned species, that is), so to elongate that list we took a morning trip to Binder Park Zoo to feed the giraffes.  This isn't actually a new activity for us–Calvin's first giraffe encounter took place when he was only a few months old, and he fed them for the first time last year–and we couldn't let a year go by without partaking in this joy, so we took advantage of the additional week of summer we've been granted and headed to the zoo yesterday morning.  Mid week during the school year can make a zoo feel down right deserted, but in a very good way, and we soaked up all the one-on-one attention the apparently lonely  docents could lavish on us.  The giraffes, too, seemed almost hungry for attention, or maybe it was just the biscuits we were holding.  Either way we enjoyed some great one-on-one time with the giraffe species as well.  There are, of course, other animals at Binder Park Zoo, such as the baby snow leapoard (who was being fed), the colobus monkeys (who were bouncing around), and the gibbons (who were whooping quietly), and the frog on the Pepsi machine, but they make for less impressive story telling and picture taking, so we'll leave those encounters up to your imagination.  What a great day to be at the zoo.

Pictures, pictures everywhere - in the September 2008, Too album.

Who ordered the heat on Labor Day?

If you know us at all then you've probably noticed that we didn't visit the zoo as often this summer as in previous years.   Instead, the majority of our summer weekends and other free days were taken up with house  and garden care, both old and new, and we just didn't get out to visit our animals as often as we would have liked.  We are trying to make up for it now, though, and on Labor Day we took Gram and Grandpa to visit our favorite animals–the  ones at the Detroit Zoo.  I'd like to say that by waiting until later in the season we were able to enjoy cooler weather and more active animals, but alas, Labor Day this year ranked right up there with some of the hotest summer weather we had experienced, and we found ourselves seeking escape from the ninety degree heat in the air conditioned polar waters tunnel.  All the same, we had a really good time; the tiger was up and about, the snow  monkeys were surprisingly active, the seals were a big hit while we took our short polar air break, and even the aardvark put on a good show.   Ever the opportunist, Calvin took advantage of having so many doting wagon pullers by stretching out, leaning back, and enjoying the sights at his leisure from behind his cool dude shades.  Oh if only they offered that service for all visitors.  For more pictures, visit the September 2008 album.