We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Today we made our first family trip to the zoo. We went to Southwicks Zoo which was really nice given that it's in the little town of Mendon/Millville. It has come a long way since I was a kid... or so I think, I can't really remember! It was a hot day to be at the zoo but thankfully it was very shady there so it seemed pretty comfortable and they had misting tents just like at Sea World! We had a really nice day and we all took a big long nap when we got home because we were exhausted!

I think it's great that the door was made to suit the giraffes!

Me: "Eric, hurry up and take the picture!"

The Erics

This tiger was pacing back and forth. He was looking a little hungry, yikes!

Sleepy leopard

Lunch time!

Sitting like a big boy on the bench. He is so easy to take places. Not once did he try to get off the bench and run around. He just sat and ate like a good kid!

If this mama baboon had a blog she would have blogged this picture! So cute to see them snuggling!

Itty bitty baby baboon!

Great big daddy baboon!

The rhino

One of our favorite parts of the zoo was the deer forest where you could feed the deer. Eric thought that when Daddy threw the feed to the deer he thought that throwing dirt and rocks was the same thing, yikes! He was just trying to feed the deer!

This little guy was very hungry

These deer wouldn't come up and eat out of our hands. We had to throw the food at them. They must have been old cranky deer because the young ones were all about eating right out of our hands!

Bambi!

Ostrich eggs! They look like dinosaur eggs!

Ostrich in the corner

So right when the Erics entered the petting zoo a bird flew by and pooped right on Eric Charles' pants! How random! So if you'll notice in some of the pictures after this he is in a new outfit! We wiped it off but ultimately decided to change his clothes.

He really enjoyed rattling any fences that would rattle. The simple things in life!

No fear this kid

Alice the camel had one hump...

I don't recall what they are looking at

The big turtles. At one point when we were walking through the zoo we heard a little girl have this conversation with her dad:

"Daddy I want to touch the turtle shell"

"You can't touch the turtle"

"No but just it's shell"

She clearly didn't understand that the shell was attached to the turtle. So cute!

Cape Cod

My sister's in-laws have a house in Falmouth, on the Cape, right across from the beach. We've been invited many times to go there but hadn't made it out yet. So, I decided to make a spontaneous trip out this weekend! We went to the beach, ate ice cream by the harbor and Eric got to spend lots of time with his cousins. It was such a nice day! The first time Eric had been to beach he was too young to enjoy it so this was really his first time and he loved it! Here are the pictures:

Dylan and Eric going for a ride down by the harbor.






Dylan taking Eric for a ride


Rest time on the couch with silkies of course

This is the life!

He may be small but he is mighty. He really was pulling the wagon!



A little teamwork

Eric decided to go for a ride instead. (Mike's grandparent's house is the one on the right)

Eric loved the beach. He would first go in the water then come back and play in the sand and then go back in the water and back and forth. He loved it!

Fight! fight!

Ryan won the fight

He LOVED the waves. He liked to sit with his back to the waves and have them rush over him. Even if he got splashed in the face he didn't care. He loved it! But only sitting on the shore. When I actually took him in the water he wasn't so thrilled because he wanted to be able to walk.

We had a nice lunch out on the porch. Whenever Mike's mom wasn't looking, Eric kept stealing her food!

Boston you're my home

I've been wanting to take Eric Charles to Boston for a long time but I've been waiting for the perfect day to go. Today was that day. I had checked the weather and if it was going to rain it was going to rain in the afternoon and if we got there early enough we would miss the heat. I was excited to take him but at the same time it's not easy for me to go to Boston. I loved living there and going to college at Wheelock. It makes me a little sad everytime I go up there that that part of my life is over. That Heather's not there to take a walk with me and all the regulars that would be around are long gone. However, although Wheelock has built a giant new building on the library green, it still has it's same old charm, minus that building. It's amazing how much some things change but at the same time are eerily the same. So today was a merging of my old life and my new life. It made me so happy to show Eric where I went to school.

So I parked in front of Wheelock and I did the walk that I think at one point Heather (my college roomie, savior, and bestest friend in the whole wide world who knows my old life and my new life) and I could do blindfolded since we did it at least once a day on every nice day in Boston. We walked (well I walked, Eric took a ride in the stroller, otherwise we'd get no where!) to the reflection pool and back. We went behind the MFA where it is so quiet and peaceful you'd never know that you're in the city. We walked past some of my memories from college while I avoided other memories that have no need to be relived!


When we finished our walk and Eric finished his lunch I let him loose around Wheelock. Here's where he went:

Good old 162 the Riverway. My home for 3 out of my 4 Wheelock years.


Walking down the Riverway



The Wheelock Family Theater home of the start of Matt Damon's acting career as well as some really awesome and reasonibly priced plays. Hopefully this year they will have some good plays to take Eric to. It will be tough for him to sit through them but I know he'll really enjoy it!
This is one of the few pictures I was able to get of him actually looking at the camera (aka my cell phone). He was having a blast running around!

Here it is, the reflection pool. If you've never been to this part of the city it comes out of nowhere. You're walking past Northeastern, past Symphany Hall and then boom! There it is out of nowhere. I feel it is the most beautiful, peaceful place in the whole city.

They had a fountain that people could run through at the end of the reflection pool. I kept Eric in the stroller because he would have gone diving in and one of the fountain rules was no kids in diapers allowed. I'm not sure why but either way I didn't have a change of clothes anyways and the water pressure was pretty strong so we just looked at it.

Checking out the scenary. Throughout most of the walk Eric just kept saying "wow! Wow!" He loved the cars and the people and the hustle and bustle of the city.

So pretty. I could not for the life of me get Eric to look at me for this picture because of all the cars driving by.

It was such a nice visit. We were literally in Boston for under 2 hours but it was great. The city allows me to clear my head and just relax like no other place. The funniest part of our visit was when some guy asked me directions some where. I know the city like the back of my hand and I know where everything is but when I was in college, and apparently it remains true today, when someone asks me where something is I suddenly have no idea. We were just heading on to the Riverway when some guy asked me which direction the Charles River was and I couldn't tell him which is awesome because I drove right by it on our way in haha. After he walked past me I felt like such an idiot when I came out of the clouds and knew exactly where the Charles River is in relation to where we were. When I was in college someone asked me where Brookline Ave was when I was on Brookline Ave and I couldn't tell them even though in the after thought I knew I was on Brookline Ave. Oh boy!