Magic and Mayhem

Today we all piled in the van and headed to Sioux Falls to hit the zoo.

We planned the trip yesterday because I was deep in internet withdrawal and Daryl thought a day trip would help.  We ended up getting our beloved internet back at last but we abandoned everything and went anyway.

It’s the zoo, after all.  What email or article could compare to that?

We had a blast.  We vowed to go more.

Oh yeah, and it was a school day.  So we basically had the place to ourselves.

Here’s pics….

We had a strange effect on birds all day!  They all got as close as possible to us!  This macaw came right over and squawked at us and just peered at us intently the whole time we were there.  I tried to chat him up to give him a bit of company!

These turkeys were another case!  They came running up to see us.

Anna found out that if she put her forehead against the glass, this turkey would stare and stare and stare and then pow, PECK at it!  We spent 15 minutes putting our foreheads on the window getting a turkey to peck at us.  We are very, very strange. 

This gibbon family was so fun to watch!  There was a mom, dad, little kid and baby.  The mom was nursing the baby and the kid was driving her nuts.  Dad mostly just hung out on his own, staring off into space, but then he joined the family and they all groomed each other and cuddled.

And the squirrel monkeys were delightful!  They kept coming up and staring at the kids.  They were so cute!

This duck followed Victoria for a block. 

They brought out their baby tiger cub, Kali, and one of the staff was playing with her.  She’s 114 days old.

On the way out, we hit the gift shop and then Daddy and the kids stopped to play a beautiful painted piano that had a “play me!” sign.

From there, we headed to downtown to hit the bead store, since I have 3 kids who are nuts, nuts, nuts about beads.

The blasted store was closed on Mondays.  Ah well.

We drove home, listening to Weird Al on the tape deck, Alex and Jack napping, Victoria reading and Anna drawing and looking at the many pictures she took on her cell phone.

We almost made it home by dark.  I’m so glad we didn’t.  I love the view.

We got home and I made pierogies with peppers and onions with KFC style biscuits, tried to catch up on 3 days worth of emails, played with a toddler, watched Castle with the kids and wrote an article about the Blossom artist and why she says she homeschools.  But I also promised Jack I’d make cupcakes today so at 11 at night I was making pumpkin spice cupcakes (and donuts and mini donuts because the recipe made a bit much!).

They are now frosted and insanely good.  But my camera battery died so no more pictures.

It’s just as well.  I’m a wee bit tuckered!

‘Twas a very nice day.