Monkeying around at the Zoo!

 Aunt Jill sprung the grand kids out of school early so that Gavin and Alexandria could join us at the Norfolk Zoo.  Va Beach kids are on spring break, so the place was a little bit of a madhouse!  

We kept yelling things like "Llama Llama, come hang out with Momma!" but she didn't seem impressed.

Jason loved the train!

Alexandria and Jill

Garrett was the perfect babysitter until Jason ruined it with a nose tweak!

Monkey seemed to be saying "Hey, how ya doing over there?"

The little baby was born at the zoo last year!

Sunbear!

Red panda!  He climbed down a rope ladder and let me take his picture from 3 feet away!

Then he got all shy on me :)

Baby giraffe was born at the zoo 6 months ago.

Caroline and Emily signed a banner that's going with the elephants to Miami a couple of months :(  No more elephants :(

Lazy lions!

Lantern Asia @ Norfolk Botanical Gardens

 The weather on Tuesday was bright and sunny but slightly chilly, so we kept it dry at the Botanical Gardens.  The traveling exhibit is amazing during the day, but I hear it's even better when they light it up at night.  We opted out of the night visit since it doesn't get dark until almost 8 PM and no one wants to deal with my kids after 7 PM, especially me!

tip toe through the tulips!

Every one of Jason's poses was a ninja theme....

This whole city is made of ceramic plates and cups!  They are strung together with fishing line.

A sand pit in the middle of the tour wasn't part of the exhibit but it was a welcome break for the kids to run around like crazy people!

These dragons were made of little bottles of colored water all strung together!

35 foot long dragon

Garrett was a bad influence and scaled a tree when no one was looking!

Virginia Beaching It for Spring Break

I got artistic on this one by getting down to Emmy's level.

Hello, Blogger, long time no blog :)  I had a week off from school so I figured, why not keep it cheap?  We headed to Va Beach to visit the family and got to see Cammy, Aunt Jill, Stephanie, Kristen, Alexandria, and Gavin!  Busy busy!  Our first stop was to the beach.  The kids love Chick's Beach because it's pretty secluded (no tourists), little waves, and I don't have to worry about rip tides coming up to the beach and dragging the children out to sea.  

Somehow we managed to bring along Timmy's kite from when he was 10 and it was the highlight of the visit!  We went to the beach every day but one (the 55 degree day) and even though Caroline stayed wrapped up in a sweater or towel, the rest of us agreed that the weather was pretty awesome for the end of March.

Jason could just dig and dig for hours.....which he pretty much did every time we went to the beach.

Garrett showing off his kite flying skills.

Caroline is keeping it real in her sweater and TWO chairs!