Last Stop...The Zoo/Aquarium!!

The day we left, we decided to make a stop in Tacoma at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. If you're ever in the area, I recommend this place! It was decent priced and had LOTS to do! Fortunately, Ron's mom was able to come too and spend one last day with us, and then just headed back up as we headed down south.

While we were buying tickets, Michael had to go to the bathroom, so the lady gave us our tickets real quick and I rushed him to the restroom. When we came out, we were greeted by this guy!

Emma decided to chase him around and backed him up into a corner....

....so he did this! We found out that they had a whole bunch of peacocks throughout the park. It was pretty cool to see them walking around with their pretty feathers!

First stop: The Lemurs! this little guy is a black lemur that was just kinda hanging out....

....while his cousins were all huddled up on the rock trying to stay warm! (And yes, we sang the "I like to move it move it" song!)

Grandma & Emma in the birds nest.

A cute little meerkat. He looks a little sad :o(

A wall of cockroaches....Gross!

Wallaby

They had a mock vetrinary office that the kids could play with.

We went to look at the elephants and I didn't even notice until my MIL said something, but I look over and saw this....(Enter your own thoughts here______)

And here's the exhibit we WANTED to see!

We found these glasses....."I'm too sexy for my shades!"

About 3 weeks prior to our visit, this mama tiger gave birth to a couple of baby cubs! They didn't have them out to where you could see them in person, but they had monitors on her. The daddy tiger was out and we could see him, however, he was pretty far back to get a picture and when we were there, one of the trainers came out to talk about them and answer questions and he said that they just recently found out that the daddy had a massive tumor which was causing some breathing problems. They started him on chemo treatments, and it seems to be helping, but they don't think it's curing. The tumor has shrunk immensely, but everything was still up in the air. He also mentioned that this particular breed (the Sumatran) is slowly depleeting and there are only a few left. They are trying to breed them using the ones that are already in zoos, but that is an iffy situation. At one point they tried to breed this female with the brother of the daddy and he tried to kill her. So anyway, they're really cute and it was interesting to learn about them.

Also new at the zoo were these cute Clouded Leopards. There were 2 of them, but when we got there, it was feeding time, and they fed them seperate. But after lunch, they had them both in there playing with the trainers. They were like oversized cats with giant paws. But, they don't get very big.

A cute little river otter!

This monkey just looked so sad. We decided he looked a little like grandpa smeesh! ;o)

These monkeys were "relaxing in style"

Sea Horses! (I thought they looked pregnant!)

The touch pools.

Sea Otters

These sea lions were so funny! They would swim toward the glass on it's back until it looked like he was going to hit it, and then he would flip on his stomach, swim to the other side of the pool, swim up and lift out of the water, and then swim towards us on his back again! He did that over and over and over!

A giant walrus! He was huge!

When we went to the car, there were peacocks in the parking lot! And they like Cheeze-Its!

A break in our trip for some funny conversations....

A couple of weeks ago these conversations happened in the same day:

Michael & Emma were play fighting and while Michael was pushing Emma's head into the couch he says, "Got any last words?!"

Then when daddy came home, Michael was playing basketball and was tossing the ball to Ron. At one point, Michael threw the ball at him, but he wasn't paying attention so it hit him in the chest. Michael goes over to the foot of the chair, looks him in the eye and says, "Daddy! Focus!"

Shortly after that, something hit Ron in his "sensitive" area and, while rolling around on the floor groaning, Emma says "Daddy, did you hurt your peanut?"

This happened a few days ago:

I was in blow drying my hair when Emma walked in with a frozen corn dog that she was eating. I found out that she had gotten into the freezer, pulled the box out, left the box on the floor and the door was still open, and decided to eat a corn dog! I asked her "Do you want me to heat that up?" To which she replied "No."

Just today:

Michael came up behind me while I was sitting on the floor and gave me a hug. Then he asked,

M: "Mommy, will you marry me?"
Me: "But I'm already married."
M: "Who are you married to?"
Me: "Daddy"
M: "Why did you marry daddy?"
Me: "Because I love him!"
M: "But you fart on him!"

These kids are so crazy, but I can't help but love 'em! They sure do come up with the funniest things!

There Is Beauty All Around

Bellingham is absolutely beautiful! It is green everywhere! It rains a ton there, so you can imagine how green it is! There are nature paths everywhere, so we decided to head down the street (literally) for a little scenery/fishing.

It looks like Ron is hunting, but he's really got a fishing pole.

I Got a Dollar Hey Hey Hey Hey!

We've been potty training Emma and she usually does pretty good, but has accidents every now and then. However, while on vacation, she kept having them more and more so we figured it would be easier to just put her in pull ups and just try to take her like normal. One day, I took her potty and she actually went. So I had her tell everyone to get her excited about it and when she told Grandpa Smeesh, he told her "Good job! Come over and give me a hug!" So I said "Michael used to get dollars!" We all had a really good laugh about it, and grandpa got his wallet out and gave her her dollar! She was SO excited! I'm gonna blow this picture up and give to him one of these days!

Relaxing in Style

Emma & Uncle Chris were laying on the hammock when Emma told Uncle Chris that she was "relaxing in style." Too cute!

The Commencement Ceremonies

The main reason for our trip was to attend Ron's brother's graduation. It was was a really nice and very long ceremony! They had about a million graduates! It was held in the stadium and when we first got there, we sat down on the side that had full on sun! Well, there was no way I was going to be able to stay there (on account of my whiteness and all!) so Ron and I packed up the kids and headed to the other side to find other seats in the shade. Unfortunately, the food that I had packed for the kids was still on the other side and I had Debra's camera, so they ate the food, and I took pictures! Luckily, they had the concession stands open! Needless to say, by the end we were nice and cool, and everyone else was burnt!

The view from Husky Stadium!

The graduates (I thought the lines looked pretty cool and reminded me of my old marching band days!)

Emma's kiss face!

All filled in and seated! (That's not even all of them!)

The Killmer Family (The kids and I did join in the photos, but no one took a pic with my camera)

G&G Smeesh

Siblings

Afterwards, we drove back to Ron's parents and had a nice party with lots of great food! It was a great day and we are so proud of Chris and all of his accomplishments!