Weekend Fun: Zoo, Pool, Nephew

Last weekend was super fun!

Friday evening we took dinner and dessert over to Mike and Bernie's and I got to meet my new little nephew, Johnny.  Boy oh boy is he precious!  I held him as much as I could, in fact I only relinquished him when he needed to nurse.

Ruby loooooooooooves her Funcle Michael!

Eddie looooooooooooooves playing with Funcle Michael...he's crazy just like Eddie.

It was pretty warm outside while we were there and as a result, Eddie's cheeks became very red.  He doesn't seem to handle the heat very well.  But it didn't stop him at all--he and Zennie played outside in the dirt, with the dogs, and with her trike until we dragged them inside for ice cream cones.  

Saturday morning we did a bunch of chores around the house.  Of course I'd made a list and we were able to check a LOT of stuff off.

I just love to do lists. I finally planted the herbs but never
got around to tying up the grape vines.

Eddie and Dave helped me cut newspaper into strips for our new worm bin.
He's oddly skilled with the scissors.

Eddie and I transferred our wormies from the Rubbermaid tote to the redwood bin my
dad made for me.  There were thousands of baby wormies in there!

Then we made our weekly trip to Costco for a late lunch and to buy some things for us and for Peggy.  Actually, Dave and I got Subway sandwiches first, which we ate in the Costco food court while Eddie ate (the toppings off of) his pizza.  When we got home, we all watched Chicken Run together, given to us by Eddie's teacher, Miss Amanda.  I hadn't see the movie in years and it was still really good.

I spent two hours that night making a triple batch of parathas for the freezer (butternut squash and turnip/parsnip/paneer).  Our kitchen smelled so dang good!  I watched a Masterpiece Classic show about Anne Frank on my laptop while I cooked.  I'll probably forever associate her story with cooking Indian food now.

We ate a leisurely breakfast on the patio Sunday morning.

Frittatas, grits, sausage, melon.

While we were eating I realized we had only a few days left to use our Sacramento Zoo Groupon so we made a last minute decision to go to the zoo that day.  I packed up some sandwiches, fruit, water bottles, and sunscreen and off we went.

Our little family.

Eddie'd only been once before and he definitely liked it more this time.

First stop: to see the nesting flamingos.

Bower boys checking out the red pandas.

My favorite, as always, were the anteaters and it think Eddie leaned toward the orangutans or the tiger.

These are the most ridiculous animals ever, I just love them!

The tiger was sleeping right next to the viewing window, so Eddie got to see the "big kitty" up close.

The Groupon included ride tickets so we went on the carousel a couple of times.  Normally there's a little train that goes through the zoo, but it was broken down this time.  We still have oodles of tickets so hopefully we can take the train next time.  

The carousel was loads of fun.  It'll be even more fun when he's tall enough to
ride alone so I can ride on my own animal next to him.

Weeeeeeee!

We went home to change into our swimming suits and spend an hour getting dinner ready.  The ribs went on the grill on low and I made some salad.  On a spur, decided to drive the few blocks to the pool since it was so hot.  I'm glad we drove because we saw that there was a loooooooooooong line to get into the pool (it was obviously at capacity).  So we then decided to try the pool across town.  It's in a nicer/newer/bigger home part of town where (Google maps shows) there are a lot more personal pools in backyards.  I've never experienced a wait at that pool and today was no different.  Thank goodness because it was HOT outside and Eddie really enjoyed playing in the water.  We were only there for about 1.25 hours since our ribs were on the grill, but it was a good amount of time to work up an appetite.  

Dinner was fantastic...especially because the ribs weren't done until after Eddie was in bed, meaning that us adults got to watch a show while eating them in front of the tv (we watched two episodes of New Girl).  Ahhhhh. 

Dave spent the night Sunday since he had to pick up some paint in Santa Rosa for his dad the next morning.  I woke up at about 4am to pee and because I was suddenly super warm in bed, even with the windows open.  Dave's alarm went off about an hour later and after he left I still couldn't sleep very well because of the heat.  My discomfort was explained once the sun came up: the clouds had rolled in so it was the heat and increased humidity that I didn't like.  The daytime temp dropped about 20 degrees from the weekend and it rained.  Yes, it rained in June in Davis.  It was a nice change to the normal heat we'd had earlier.  But it was a little odd that we were swimming one day and biking home in the rain the next afternoon.