The Montgomery Zoo

Aidan and I met some friends at the Montgomery Zoo on Thursday. It is a nice little Zoo. It is set on a lake and it has some beautiful scenery. Of course they have some great animals too. They had the cutest baby elephant. They also had some Bengal Tigers that were swimming in their pond. All of the animals were active while we were there which made it really enjoyable. The Zoo also had a great picnic area and playground. Aidan's favorite things at the Zoo were the Otters because you could feed them. They would swim up and do all kinds of funny things when you threw the pellets in the water. And of course the train ride around the park. It wouldn't be a good Zoo in my boys minds without a train ride. We will definitely be going back.

A great new park

We found this great new park here in Prattville. It really has been too hot to do anything outside other then swim until this weekend. It finally cooled down to 89 degrees but there is no humidity for the first time since we moved here so it feels so much nicer then 89 degrees. So we set out to enjoy the day and we found this great wooden castle park. It is a lot like the Sunny Fields park in Solvang, CA. The boys instantly made friends with some boys and ran around for hours playing chase. Poor Aidan was so exhausted because his little legs just couldn't keep up with those big boys with all the stairs. The park has a cool little pond and creek attached to it which the boys also loved. Aidan threw some rocks in the pond and tried chasing the ducks. Next time we will have to remember some bread for the ducks.

My little Football player

Nick started Football last week and so far he likes it. They just had skill assessment days where they tried to rank all the players to make the teams more even. He has his first practice on Monday and games start in September. I will try to take some action pictures this week at practice. If you are wondering why Aidan is in his swimsuit it is because Aidan and I usually go swimming while Jeremy and Nick go to Football practice since they practice right next to the pool. It is easier and cooler then watching Aidan run around the Football field.

The first day of First Grade

Today we walked Nick to the bus stop for his first day of First Grade. He was excited and a little nervous. He had a really hard time falling asleep last night. There were 3 other first graders at the bus stop including two boys so hopefully Nick will make some friends soon. They have to carry these school tote bags instead of backpacks which seem really awkward compared to a backpack. He also has to wear a tag around his neck for the first week until they get everything all figured out on where they go when they are at school. Hopefully, he has a great year at school this year.

The Minnesota Zoo

We also ventured out to the big Zoo thanks to my sister who gave us some free passes that had to be used up. The Zoo has grown enormously since I was there last which probably was close to 15 years ago. They had so many fun things for the kids to do. They loved everything but some of their favorites were the shark tank and tide pools, the monorail, the playground out on the Northern Trail, the Wolves and Bears, the new African section (especially the Giraffes you could feed), all the little hideouts to play in, the tractor ride to the farm animals and the Coral reef fish tank. Out of all the exotic animals they had the Zoo the boys favorite animals were the prarie dogs. They were funny. They would fight and wrestle and they would try and jump up the walls of their habitat and just fall back down. Both boys were laughing so hysterically they couldn't stop. They didn't want to leave the prarie dogs. We spent an entire day at the Zoo and by the end we were all exhausted from all the walking. We had a great time and would love to go back.

Minnehaha Falls

The boys and I ventured down to Minnehaha Falls one day and hiked down to the Falls. We were rather dissappointed to see that it was under construction and we couldn't hike around much at the bottom. That was always the best part about going as a kid is that you could practically get lost on the trails at the bottom and throw rocks in the river. So we ventured back up and played at the park for a while.

Trains with Grandpa

We spent much of our time with Grandpa M. watching trains, checking out old trains being repaired, chasing trains, or riding trains. My boys thought all of the above were the best things ever. We had a great day at the St. Croix River Railroad where we got to ride the little trains. We didn't get to ride as many times as Nicholas would have liked but more times then the last time we went. We also enjoyed a nice picnic lunch while we were there. I don't know who had more fun Grandpa or the boys.