Helloooooo Summer!

After a long and difficult winter (see this post and this post for a reminder of why this winter stunk), we finally had a rain-free HOT HOT HOT summer day!  I've been looking forward to this weekend for a while, but the great weather has made it even more wonderful.  We'll be out of town for the next two weekends, so I wanted to stay put for the long holiday and enjoy some of the family-friendly activities our fair city has to offer.

First things first - we went to the ZOO!!!!  I love our Zoo.  It's not too big, but it has all the classics - giraffes, monkeys, elephants, gorillas, flamingos, camels, rhinos, lemurs, meerkats, zebras, polar bears, seals, tigers, and (Sylvia's favorite) a wolf.  Just to name a few.  We bought a membership today so we can take her as much as we want this summer.  I bet we're there at least once a week.  It's a great place to take a picnic lunch and kill a couple of hours.

 Look at that big girl!  We stopped at the rose garden to eat lunch and she had half of a chicken and cheese sandwich, a whole graham cracker, and a bunch of carrot chips.  I can't believe how big she's getting!  And I should send a shout out and a THANK YOU to Uncle Pete for her killer New Balance sneakers.  They fit her perfectly, and she'll wear them ALL SUMMER LONG.

We stopped at the petting zoo, but I couldn't get a good shot of Sylvia petting the goats.  She wasn't very impressed.  She spends a lot of time chasing our cat around the house, so when something just sits there and lets her touch it, it's not nearly as fun!  P.S.  I kept a hat on her all day.  I don't know why it's not on her head in this picture.  Gran and Grammy would also like to know that she was well covered in sunscreen.  Safety first!

 What I love most about our Zoo is all the glorious SHADE they have everywhere.  Today was really, really hot, and we stopped a dozen times to let her out of the stroller so she could run around and drink some water.  I never had to worry about that pesky sun.  There's a splash park there, too, but we were not prepared to let her run around down there with a bunch of other kids.  We'll definitely do that another day!

We got home and tried to put her down for a nap.  No dice!  Girl was too wound up to sleep.  So we did the next best thing.  We all got our swimsuits on and headed to the new "Sprayground" at the local park!  This was an instant hit with the Nugget.  I don't have any pictures, but trust me, she loved it.  The park is right around the corner from our house (reason number 345 why I will MISS THIS PLACE when we leave).  It took her a while to figure out how the sprayground worked.  There were a TON of kids running around in the fountains, and when I set her down on the ground, she clung to my leg and begged for me to pick her back up.  I stuck her feet in a couple of times and she screamed and cried!  It was cold.  And weird and new to her.  But after about three tries, she started to giggle a little.  And by the tenth try, she was downright squealing with delight!

I held her in my arms, ran through the water, and we were both soaking wet and smiling from ear to ear.  It was really quite a thrill!  I stood there and watched all the other neighborhood kids enjoying the spraygound, and I couldn't help but feel a deep appreciation for a city that provides such wonderful summer enjoyment for it's citizens - for free!  Tons of parents and tons of kids, all smiling and happy and pleasant.  Hooray for Summer!  You're our new best friend!


P.S. again: Sylvia has FOUR new teeth coming in!  Am I supposed to keep track of these anymore?  She has eight in the front and now she's getting two molars on top and two on the bottom.  I just thought I should make a note of it.  I don't know if incoming teeth are important anymore.