Reese and I went to Ohio a while ago to visit Tessa and Duffy while my parents were also visiting. It was such a fun week! We ate yummy food, shopped a little bit, visited my grandparents in
Zanesville (whom Reese met and charmed for the first time!) and went to the Columbus Zoo. Reese and I drove the 9 hour drive alone and she was a champ! It was such an easy drive that I'm wondering why we haven't gone more often!
Once everyone was present and accounted for, we went to
Graeters...home of the most delicious ice cream in the world!
One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to the Columbus Zoo! We started our visit with an animal show created for the Columbus Zoo with incredible antics of nearly 100 exotic, barnyard and domestic animals including many cats and dogs adopted from local shelters. It was hysterical and Reese was giggling the entire time.
The kangaroo is pumping up the Jeep tires so that Jungle Jack can make it to the
Into the Wild shoot on time.
After the show, the trainers brought some of the animals out to meet the audience. Reese got brave and went to make friends with the talent!
These cute little
larakeets would eat/drink right out of the little cup in your hands! They may or may not have mistaken the skin on my hand for the yummy juice in the cup, which wouldn't have been that bad--it didn't really hurt--but it did scare me, so I screamed, flinched and dropped the juice, which freaked Reese out and she started balling. That was one rule--you were supposed to use calm, soft voices in the bird cage.
Oopsies.
This baby elephant,
Bohdi, pushed its blue toy around the whole time we were there and Reese thought it was the funniest thing!
The keeper had some apple pieces for us to feed the rhino. As soon as she could smell it, she came right over and stayed until all the food was gone.
The trainer was pretty impressed that Reese--a two-year-old--was more brave around the rhino than his six-year-old son. She had no fear!
another shot of Bohdi playing on the way out
The Columbus Zoo takes in manatees rescued from the wild and cares for them until they are healthy enough to be released back into the wild.
Kinda hard to tell from this picture, but Reese was throwing heads of romaine lettuce to feed the Manatees. The manatees became Reese's special friends because she was able to feed them. She got a stuffed manatee in the gift shop and has wanted to sleep with it every night since! (Also, it looks like she is really close to the edge, but not to worry, I had a death grip on her--there was no way she was going in without taking me with her.)
We were pretty lucky to see this koala awake--apparently they sleep between 18-22 hours each day!
This porcupine-looking animal was in the same habitat as the koala. It's not actually a porcupine, or even in the same family, oddly enough; but for the life of me, I cannot remember it's name! He liked to bury himself under some wood chips, but we got him to come out for a quick peek.
We got to see the polar bears right at feeding time. The polar bears saw the keepers coming over with some fish and some fruity ice pops and when the keepers started to throw them in, the polar bears dove in so gracefully. It was pretty unbelievable. There was also a place under the water that you could go to see a view from below. That had to have been one of my favorite things to see!
I took this picture of Reese in the garden at my grandparents house. She is such a ham. It was so nice to see them and to introduce them to Reese.
It was a blast to spend the whole week with Tessa and Duffy and my parents. Reese LOVED playing with Tessa's dog Harper and had a blast taking him to the
doggie park...but she needs to work on respecting dogs that are bigger than her before I let her go back...to the
doggie park, that is. Tessa and Duffy were such gracious hosts and I can't wait to go back!
This picture pretty much sums up the week.
Paradise! I could have stayed there forever!
And there were dolphins swimming back and forth the entire weekend. It was amazing to watch! We even saw a few jump way out of the water, which made it feel like we were in an even more exotic location!
Michael and Reese did some fishing...
...and built sand castles and went swimming in the ocean...
...and played with friends in the sand. What could be better?
