illinois trip - day 6 :: brookfield zoo & the saxers

monday, september 29

before i get into our crazy day i thought i'd share this picture of jonah and my parents' dog whitney. she's an old black cocker spaniel and jonah loved her. she's so mellow that she normally just let jonah pet her. sometimes she'd get tired of it and walk away, but overall she was pretty complacent about the extra attention.

ok so monday we had planned a trip to the zoo. with the forecast looking gloomy we decided to brave the elements and head out anyway. last time we were in town in april we had wanted to go to brookfield but a blizzard stopped us. this time the threat of a little rain wasn't going to hold me back!

so we loaded up our umbrellas and our sweatshirts and our strollers and headed out to see the animals! it was me, dave, jonah, my mom, my sister molly, my niece kylee and our friend karla and her son ian met up with us. what a soggy adventure it turned out to be!

right as we entered the zoo we stopped and bought jonah a sweet froggy umbrella (more on that sad story later) and a few ponchos.

i was finally able to bust out my camera when we got to the giraffe viewing hut. this giraffe really liked licking this tree.

this little guy was born on august 15, 2008! he's so little and cute! yeah, little... probably like 7 or 8 feet tall. =) giraffes are crazy!

ian, are you ready for a nap already?! we just got here!

jonah checking out the giraffes.

the fishy wall in the living coast.

kylee & molly on a giant turtle.

whoa! crush dude!

does it have a lever? then i need to touch it.

ooooooh... nemos! (jonah calls all fish "nemo").

jonah wouldn't go near this fish after it ate aunt mowgy.

hello mr. penguin.

my architectural feet in honor of diane dungey.

kylee and my mom on the peacock on the carousel.

ian and karla on a baboon. nice choice, ian.

this is the oh so cute froggy umbrella with the oh so cute hubby underneath it.

that's me! can you see me? this was a tricky pic to get with the carousel spinning. i got mad skills!

hi again!

[d] was feelin' hoppy.

mmm... cheetos. jonah pronounces them "chfips". i can't even spell it... or say it like he does. it's cute though. that's another one i gotta catch on video.

here we are! it stopped raining just long enough for us to get our traditional picture taken on the lion, but we decided to leave the umbrellas up for dramatic effect since that's where we spent our whole day.

hmmm... this picture makes me want to eat peanuts for some reason.

ok, so the sad umbrella story is that we left it in the bathroom right before we went running for the car. so sad. i need to call the zoo and see if some kind soul turned it in to the lost and found for us. hopefully they won't try to resell it because not four minutes after we purchased it jonah managed to skillfully drop it in front of the moving stroller, bending two of the spines and tearing a small hole in the top. so hey, maybe those defining characteristics will set it apart from all of the other lost froggy umbrellas and keep them from reselling it. but maybe it has since been thrown in the trash. but maybe the kind people at the zoo will take pitty on us and sell us a new froggy umbrella at half price. well, all you illinois folk, now you know what jonah would like for christmas. ok, he could probably care less, but i'm kinda sad about our new lost umbrella. =(

so other than the tragic froggy umbrella incident the whole morning was a success. we had oodles of fun seeing the animals and trying to stay dry. we ended up with some cold wet tootsies, but it was definitely an adventure to remember!

after the zoo and nap time dave and jonah and i headed out to our friend andrew and brianna's house. they got married last september (on jonah's birthday) and dave was the best man.

they just had new baby aj on september 16th (my sister molly's birthday, that makes it easy to remember!) here are his lil piggies...

jonah brought a whole load of his new birthday toys with to play with and i think andrew might have had more fun than jonah.

ok, maybe it was a tie.

andrew drew everyone's portraits.

ummm... andrew, no offense, but you might consider keeping your day job. bri is definitely not that mean in real life.


i think dave might have drawn this one of me because andrew's was too scary.

jonah's self portrait.

and i drew baby aj.

bri & me

did i mention that dave and andrew are twins. ok, so they don't have the same mother, but they very well could have been switched at birth. they were born on the same day at the same hospital and within like just a few hours of each other. aaaaand... as if that's not enough, i grew up across the street from little "andy" when we were kids. i moved in 2nd grade, but up until then we used to play together in each other's back yards. we were reunited in 2003 and didn't even recognize each other until the second time we met and i heard andrew's last name. then dave and andrew ended up working together and they've been best friends ever since. so is that crazy or what?!

the boys and their boys.

the saxers! awe!