More Zoo Fun

baby panda

Brodie and Sophie

Brodie and Sophie really enjoyed watching the gorillas. The gorillas were wrestling part of the time just like little children do. It was fun watching them.

The Atlanta Zoo

Sophie, Abbie, Brodie, and Bradley with the pandas behind

all the kids posing by the gorilla statues

our only good family shot on the trip-Thanks Kathy!

Abbie liked the turtles a lot-she was reaching in and petting them. I guess she wore the perfect shirt that day!

On Saturday, we got up bright and early, stopped to pick up some breakfast and headed to the zoo. We met up with Kathy and Trent Burnett and their boys there. Matt and Kathy attended Harding together. It was the first time that we had seen them in years!  We had only seen each other's kids in pictures so it was wonderful to meet their boys in person.  They are really cute!  Our kids got along well.  Sophie and Abbie were both fascinated with the gorillas and Abbie liked the monkeys too.  We enjoyed being able to see the baby panda as well.   That afternoon, Abbie and Paula both took naps! 

Recent Zoo Trips

Abbie goes beyond the call of duty-she's got a brush on each hand.

                                                      the flamingoes are here!

                                                       Abbie's 1st day of school

This past week, Abbie started back to Mother's Day Out.  Yay!  Both of my kids are back in school.  While I'm still adjusting to having Sophie gone every day and really wish that she was around more, I was excited to have a day or two that's scheduled where someone else is watching my kids.  After having them home with me all summer, it will be nice to have a break!  Anyway, Abbie did fine at school but she hasn't taken a nap so far.  I'm happy that Abbie is in Ms Katy's class and several of her friends from church are in there.  While Abbie was in school, Matt & I both worked on getting her room painted so that we could transition her into a big girl bed over the weekend.  Pictures of her room to come soon...  Abbie has done really well with that transition.  Her first night in the big girl bed she was grinning from ear to ear because she was so excited about her big girl bed.

On another note, the weather has been a little cooler outside and we've been able to go to the zoo a couple of times.  I didn't take very many pictures but the first time it was just me and Abbie.  We had a great time but poor Sophie missed out (and Daddy).  This past weekend, we planned it so that we could all go and we were able to see the new flamingo exhibit.  The zoo got pretty busy since it was so pretty for Labor Day weekend but we still had a nice time!

Atlanta Zoo/Aquarium

Paula & Sophie on carousel at zoo

Sophie in tunnel at aquarium playground

our family at the aquarium

After going to the zoo on Saturday morning, we came back and took naps that afternoon. Then, we took the subway out to the Ikea store to look around. Sophie had been on the subway in DC, but she was a baby and didn't remember it. She was really excited about it this time. Anyway, after going to Ikea, we headed over to Atlantic Station (an area with lots of stores and restaurants) and we had dinner. Then, we headed back to the hotel. Since we took the subway to Ikea, it reall limited what we could take home with us.

On Sunday morning, we visited the aquarium. It was really nice, but it got really crowded around 11:00. They have some huge whales and sharks there and lots of other fish and sea creatures. Sophie went right up to the glass and would say, "hi, fish". She wanted to know what the otters and other animals names were. One of the workers at the aquarium asked Sophie what her name was. Sophie said "Sophie. My Mommy has a baby girl in her tummy but I not know her name." The lady didn't hear what Sophie said so she asked Matt. Matt explained and they got a laugh out of that. =) For lunch, we were able to see Sophie's great-uncle Bobby's house and go to lunch with him. Then, we headed back to Nash Vegas. We were all totally exhausted that night but we had a wonderful trip!

Weekend Getaway

While in Atlanta, we went to the zoo. This family of apes and the panda bear exhibit were the highlights of our visit.

Zoo Atlanta has a giant panda exhibit. This picture shows the 14-month old Baby Panda "Mei Lan", which in Chinese means "Lazy" and the Mama Panda "Lun Lun" which means "Too Lazy to move Bamboo off belly"

baby panda-14 months old and about 65 lbs

Sophie pats the gorilla statue

Sophie hanging out

This past weekend, we decided to take a last minute trip to Atlanta. We figured that it might be our last chance to get away just for a fun trip before our baby comes in January. We had a great trip! We drove down on Friday afternoon and stayed in a nice hotel downtown. It had a really cool glass elevator that Sophie loved where you could see out over the whole hotel atrium as you rode it (it was a very large, fancy hotel) which Matt booked on Priceline. =) Every time Sophie talked about riding the elevator it sounded like she was asking to go on the alligator.

Anyways, on Saturday, we woke up to a cold morning in Atlanta and headed to the zoo. We were excited to beat the crowds to the panda bears there so that we could really watch them. They have a mom, dad, and baby panda. The baby was fun to watch because she had slid down a rocky hill and then she had to figure out how to climb back up. Seeing the panda bears made the whole morning worthwhile for us. We also got to see tons of other animals. Sophie enjoyed seeing the gorillas. They had some babies too. Sophie went up to the statue of a mom and baby gorilla and said, "it's OK" just like she does with her dolls at home. Sophie surprised us by willingly touching many of the animals in the petting zoo. Usually she is very skittish when she's up close to animals, but she didn't mind petting some of the animals this time.

Sophie also enjoyed riding the carousel at the zoo and jumping in a big pumpkin jump castle they had for Halloween. I'll include a picture from the carousel in the next post.