Oregon Zoo

This last weekend my parents and sister came to visit. We have so much fun seeing them!

Saturday night they arrive around 5:30 and brought tons of presents for the kids. They brought a t-shirt and Thomas and friends pez dispensers for Joe, an Angelina ballerina book for Molly, a book and a shark took for Sam and a new USMC t-shirt for me! After they got the kids completely hyper we sent them to play in their room and had a fire in our fireplace. I made pork chops, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli for dinner. It was so relaxing just to sit and visit… like we used to. They told us all about the tearful reunion with my brother from Afghanistan and we all cried when they told about all the other families waiting to see their sons, husbands, Daddy’s, brothers and friends. My Mom said there were more than one brand new baby that a very very proud Daddy would swoop up from his wife to show off to his buddies. I saw the pictures and cried again. I’m so sad I had to miss it!
Dad took Sam and Joe back to his hotel to spend the night and swim in their pool. Sam thoroughly enjoyed the hot tub and Joe caught up on his grandma cuddling. J and I had a nice quiet evening with the girls and an even more quiet morning without the boys! 

Sunday we headed to the Oregon Zoo. It was SO much fun!! I love the Zoo anyway and when we got there, a few minutes after my parents they surprised up by having bought us a year pass!!! I was stoked! We even got a cool bumper sticker with an orangutan that says “Oregon Zoo” on it. Suh-weet!!!

We did have a ton of fun touring the zoo too. Next time I think we’ll take the train and the time after that I think we’ll pick up some zoo keys.  A lot of the exhibits have little places that will talk to you if you have the little $2.50 key. We walked and walked and saw EVERYTHING!!!

I had been particularly excited to go because it was Wolf Week. They advertised on the zoo’s website that they were going to let us watch the wolves do their thing when they threw them a carcass! I was sooo excited. We got there on time and were actually quite disappointed. They gave them cut up pieces of a calf. The head to the den mother, then sprinkled a leg here, a haunch there. There was no blood and guts, no calf running away while the wolves hunted. Oh well, that might have been concerning for the kids anyway. 

We saw every animal that was out, tried out the exhibits and Mom even bought the kids masks. Amanda (my sister) bought the kids cotton candy.

We went home and took naps then met for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.
After dinner we said our goodbyes and they went on their way. Monday was pretty quiet around here. I miss them all, but having them visit was such a treat and we treasured every minute together. I think things are going to work out just fine.