lions, and tigers, and bears! oh my!

Yesterday, lance, lily, my mom, and I headed down to north carolina and went to the nc zoo in Asheboro.
It was hot, sunny, and extremely humid. Despite the heat and the miles and miles of walking we had a good time. The kids did awesome despite the long day, we left at 8:30 in the morning and didn't return until 9 that night. I am not sure how much Lily saw or what she could understand, but Lance enjoyed the animals, though he missed out on the chimpanzees because he fell asleep, I thought he would get a kick out of them, Lily found them entertaining.

Sitting in the polar bear cave was much more interesting then the one polar bear himself who was trying to get inside, don't blame the poor guy, he is meant to be in much cooler environments.


I took Lance on the carousel, didn't know if he would love it or hate, he loved it.

My favorite animals were the seals and sea lions. Not only were they fun to watch in the water, the cool air coming from their tank felt so nice and refreshing, I didn't want to leave.


The lions were quite impressive and one of the few animals that were easy to spot, so many of them were tucked away to escape the heat.

Lily and the chimpanzees, she got quite excited when they ran by, but she lost interest quickly.

The giraffes and zebras didn't look real, their patterns and colors were so vibrant they didn't seem natural.

The grizzly bear had the right idea, lounging in his swimming hole.

After walking through the whole zoo we took the tram all around and then got back in the van. After a quick stop for dinner and our favorite Fresh Market we headed home. So another summer adventure is complete, can't wait for next week's adventure, this time to the mountains!

when technology goes bad

this morning proved that technology isn't at all that wonderful or useful.
The kids, my mom, and her dog went for a walk on the trail this morning. By the time we got back to the car, Lily was extremely fussy, she wanted to eat and go to bed, I was hot and tired, and Lance was antsy. I walked up to our car and hit the unlock/disarm button on the key remote.
Nothing happened.
I hit it again, nothing happened.
The battery in the remote must have died.
Great, I can't get into my car.
I tried to open up the remote and tap the battery a few times in hopes that it would work, that always seems to work for television remotes, yet, somehow messing with the key remote set off the car alarm.
After a few minutes it went off, yet we were still locked out.
Before we got our Subaru we had a Volkswagen and you could unlock and turn off the alarm with the key in the door so I tried to unlock the door and turn off the alarm through the key. No such luck.
The door opened, but the alarm went off again. It was getting quite annoying, I feel bad for the neighbors.
I tried in vain to turn on the car, but it wouldn't start since it thought it was in security mode. I set the alarm off again as I desperately tried to get the battery out of the key remote and get the remote to work. No such luck . At this point, both kids are crying, I am extremely frustrated and embarrassed and I realize I am stranded with no way to get home.
Fortunately my mom was there with her own car, but she didn't have car seats in her car so she had to drive to my house and fetch the spare set of keys and bring them back. She left to go get the keys while I tried to find some shade, feed lily, and get lance calmed down. It was a bit creepy being alone on the trail/woods with no car to escape too (there are houses close, but obviously people don't come to help with an alarm sound because no one seemed to notice my car alarm that was going off repeatedly)
Fortunately we don't live that far away, but it was a pain nevertheless, and a reminder that sometimes technology isn't that grand and I wished I had a car that didn't have an alarm.

cooking with lance

I use to just find recipes that were easy to make because I usually have a grumpy child that wants to be held when it is time to cook dinner, but now I try and find recipes that can involve Lance. He loves to be a helper in the kitchen so finding recipes that he can help with are important. Cooking together also is a great way for us to spend some quality time together. So two weeks ago we cooked dinner together and it was a lot of fun, easy to make, and for the most part pretty stress-free, which is rare when in the kitchen with Lance, he usually is getting into everything. Here is what we made:

Foil Pack Taco Chicken from kraft foods:

Cut up red potatoes in thin slices and place on foil (we use the non-stick kind and place potatoes in a single close layer together)

Sprinkle taco seasoning on potatoes
Place a chicken breast on the potatoes
Sprinkle taco seasoning on chicken
Pour some salsa over top of the chicken
Sprinkle with cheese, we use the fiesta cheese
then it is time to wrap up the foil into packs
bring two sides together, roll down, then roll up opposite sides leaving a bit of space at the top for cooking (not wrapped up super tight against the chicken
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour in 375 degree oven, then enjoy with sour cream on the side!

11 months of Lily

Lily is officially 11 months old.
Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was waiting for her to arrive and now almost a year has gone by. My baby girl is almost a year! Ah! Say it isn't so.
Time seems to be going by at lightning speed and I am just holding on for dear life.
So at 11 months she can and likes to:
feed herself
dance
go down the slide at the park by herself, that includes getting into a sitting position and lifting up her feet to go all by herself, amazing!
climb the stairs, well climb anything really
eat m&m's just like her momma
walk about 6 steps on her own
pull her bib off in 30 seconds or less
play with Lance
sing and growl
and she loves people, she flirts and makes friends with everyone everywhere we go, men in uniform seem to be her favorite though
so we have one month left of baby, oh my!

is your mama a llama? our safari adventures

We took advantage of Jeff not having a store to work and went on an adventure yesterday. We headed to Natural Bridge to go to the Virginia Safari Park. When we first got to Natural Bridge it was pouring rain so we took an hour or so to tour the Natural Bridge Caverns. While they were cool, literally, it was not worth the money. Fortunately it had stopped raining by the time we were finished at the caverns so we headed to the safari park. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then went on the safari adventure. And an adventure it was.

(jeff feeding a camel)

The park is unique because you drive through and can feed the animals. Last year when we went we were in our car so we just had the windows rolled down, this year since we had Lily and my mom we took my mom's van and kept the one of the van doors open. I rode in the back with the open door and boy was that a crazy ride! The animals come right up to the car looking for the white feed buckets. One llama tried reaching across me into the middle of the van to get a feed bucket, it was scary having a llama in my lap.

(me feeding the nice, small deer/antelopes)

It was really neat though to see bison, zebras, camels, wildebeests, llamas, emus, ostriches, all kind of antelope, and elk so close, though at time they were a bit too close.

(jeff getting a close encounter with an female elk)

It was also a little strange to see bison and zebras together or camels and llamas together. The animals aren't at all grouped together based on where they are naturally from like most zoos, but just seeing them up close is amazing.

(you aren't suppose to feed the zebras, and we didn't, but they still tried to get in the van and get some food)


The kids really liked being able to drive around and not have to be in their car seats. Lance moved around quite a bit, he was a little unnerved by the animals coming in the van for food.

(lily poking her head out the window, there weren't any animals around at the time)

(Virginia really isn't the African savanna, but it was still very pretty.)

The Safari park also has some walking exhibits that we enjoyed after the drive-thru part. I loved the giraffes, especially the baby. We didn't bring remember to bring with us quarters to feed the giraffes and we were about all fed out anyways.

(the baby giraffe checking us out to see if we had any food)

(lance as a wildlife biologist)

(you can get quite close to lots of animals, the adult giraffe who was hoping for something to eat from me)

(lance by the pygmy goats, they were cute, but smelled bad)

So we had a great afternoon at the park. I can't wait to go back again another day, but next time I think we will take our car, the van was a little too up close and personal with the animals, it was fun, but a bit scary at time.

a great big brother

When Lily first arrived on the scene Lance was such a great helper.
Lance also loved Lily.
Then Lily grew and was able to get into his toys and became a bit more demanding, and Lance wasn't much of a fan of his sister.
Fortunately the big brother, great helper is coming back.
Lily has discovered stair climbing. Lance never was much of a stair climber, but Lily is drawn to them like a moth to the flame. We have a gate at the top of the stairs, but not one at the bottom, yet. Anyways, Lance has become quite the good helper at telling us when Lily is starting to go up and with removing her from the stairs if she has already started. How he is able to pick her up and move her away is beyond me since they are very similar in size, but he does it without dropping her most of the time. Though it is a bit dangerous, I don't want to stop Lance because he is taking his Lily stair removal job very seriously and is being as gentle as he can, it is very sweet.
He also has taken on the job of helping Lily drink out of a sippy cup. He too takes this job very seriously as well. Lily tries to drink out of sippy cups, but she generally does not hold the cup high enough so Lance helps by holding the cup for her. This morning on our walk, he kept putting the cup up to her mouth and telling her to drink, very cute.
He also helped me change a dirty diaper, he got me the wipes and even helped wipe her, something he use to do when she was a newborn.
I am so thankful that is making an effort to be a helper because the trying to be a baby was not always fun.

trying to find a new normal

The past week, since we have returned from the beach, we have been trying to find a new normal. A new routine, it hasn't been easy.
Jeff gets up early like before and goes to his morning job and then he doesn't have any where to go in the afternoon since our new store location isn't ready yet.
He has lot of stuff to do, phone calls to make, websites to update, product to order, fixtures to design and build, and tons of paperwork.
After two days of being home and him trying to get things done in the dining room and in the playroom, we realized that until the new location is up and running, (early August), he needed a space that would not have to be moved for meals or playtime, so Lily's room has been turned into the new home of Scene 3 boardshop. We brought in an old desk my mom had in her basement, removed the changing table, and emptied Lily's bookcase. So now Lily's room is filled with skateboards, wheels, trucks, t-shirts, and all kinds of other product waiting for the new location to be up and running.
It has been nice having Jeff home a lot in the afternoons, but it is hard to keep the kids away, they want to be with him and playing with him and they aren't use to him being home, but busy.
So we are trying to find a new routine, a new normalcy in this in between weird time.

we are at the beach

enjoying the beach

all you need is a bucket of water to keep the kids happy

sunset at the pier

love time with Gigee


and i never want to come home

can't I just stay here all summer long?