Monkeys and Bears and Goats...Oh My!

Yesterday Madi and I went to the local zoo. I was tired of being cooped up in the house and it gave Madi a couple of hours of doing something different for a change. It's a really nice zoo, not too busy and not terribly big, just right for us. Madi walked most of it herself, I had to carry her a couple of times and we stopped and rested a couple of times. Last year when we went she was a little scared of the monkeys. But she did good this year. They weren't very active, they just sat there, but fortunately one was sitting close to the glass so we could see them. Madi is really into saying her emotions right now. So when she saw the monkey just sitting there, she sat on the bench and sighs and says "Madi's sad." Oh so pitiful. I asked her why she was sad and she said "the monkey is sad." He did look pretty sad sitting there, but I think monkeys always look sad. She is so perceptive.

We saw all sorts of animals and I took pictures (of course). Now we can look at the pictures and name the different animals. Good learning opportunity. There were a couple of bears and they were both right up at the fence. The first bear climbed into his watering hole and was getting cooled down and Madi said he was swimming like her. We went to the next bear and he was really close. I asked Madi if she could see the bear. She looks at me says, "that's not a bear, that's Boog." He's from the movie Open Season (really cute movie if you haven't seen it). We then went over and rested at the bears viewing area. She starts crawling around on the bench and says she's walking like a bear.



Before we get to the bears Madi keeps telling me "Madi needs to go home." Which means I have had enough, I'm tired, let's go. But we hadn't even gotten to the Kids Country where we can feed farm animals. I wanted to go there last because I was afraid we would never get out of there if we went first, but I didn't think she would poop out on me that quickly. But as soon as she saw the cow, she had her second wind. So we fed the goats and a llama and the cow. The goats are a little demanding with the food and they get pretty riled up. One of the goats was pretty scary. Every time Madi gave him a piece of food he would bang his horns on the gate. I took some video of her feeding them and after watching when I got home, that goat was pretty dangerous. I almost thought he got her fingers but she never said he hurt her.

It was a fun morning. I thought it would poop her out enough she would sleep all afternoon. But the little stinker took a short nap. I don't know how that always happens. We do nothing and she takes a long nap, I go out and try to wear her out and she takes a short nap. No figuring her out.







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Last weekend, we finally got some work done around the house. Chris went out and got me a garden tiller (I had been asking him for one for awhile). We were able to get the ground worked up in front of the house and all leveled off. It looks so nice and finished finally. The native grass is working itself closer and closer towards the house. This fall we will probably till it back up and get some heartier grass planted. We also spent all day Sunday getting the rest of the siding caulked. What a relief to finally get that done. Every time the wind was strong we cringed hoping that it wouldn't tear anymore siding down. And the flapping noise was awful. But we had some pretty good winds and rain overnight and no problems, didn't hear a thing.

We were going to start on the back deck this weekend. But nobody in town keeps the long boards we need on hand so we had to order them. They will be in on Monday, how convenient. So I guess next weekend is deck building weekend. If you don't have anything to do, we could use the help, ha ha! No plans so far for this weekend, at least that I know of (I usually find out five minutes before we do something though.)

Have a great weekend!
Love, Amy