I've heard it said that all good things must come to an end. Nearly two years ago we opened our home to a 9-week old while his Mommy and Daddy were at work each day. Connor very quickly became a part of our family and was doted on by everyone. And now, two years later, he has "graduated" to daycare. Connor's final day with us was last Friday. And, of course, we had to make it count. So I let Mason skip school, and we spent the day at the zoo. They were all so excited!
Their favorite is the tiger exhibit. The tigers were actually walking around this day instead of laying down asleep like they usually are. There is a huge slab of plexiglass that you can stand in front of to see the tigers. At one point, one of the tigers started walking directly toward the glass and got right up to it. Connor took off running! It really was funny. And then they had to pose in the tiger cage.
We enjoyed all of the colorful birds, especially the peacock that was roaming free. I was really hoping we would have an opportunity to see him spread his tail feathers, but we didn't.
The Louisiana swamp exhibit was another favorite.
Hannah Kate's favorite is the pink flamingos. She wanted her picture with them, but Mason didn't want to be in a picture with pink birds.
They have a wonderful playground at the zoo, and we had it all to ourselves for awhile.
And, of course, they can't resist the revolving water globe.
So after three hours of walking the zoo, we are all nearing a meltdown.
But we had to ride the train. They were all so excited. But, again, we were in meltdown mode so there was little to no cooperation for anymore pictures.
Before we said our final goodbye's, I had one more gift for Connor. I made an ABC book for him entitled "C is for CONNOR: The Story of Our Life with You." I used many of my favorite pictures from our two years together and managed to come up with a special word and matching pictures for nearly every letter in the alphabet. We also gave him a kids' Bible.
We've missed Connor this week. Hannah Kate reminded me about six times today how much she misses him. I keep reminding her that we'll see him at church. And maybe one day he can play "hookie" from daycare and spend the day with us again.
In the meantime, people have asked me what I'm going to do with myself. Well, let's just say I don't have a problem finding things to do! This week I worked in my vegetable garden, planted summer flowers in my pots and flower garden, put out five bales of pine straw, moved my wedding and Christmas china to the buffet and china cabinet in the dining room, rearranged and reorganized all of the cabinets in my kitchen, washed the windows (inside and out) . . . and that's only the beginning! My next project is to refinish four of the front doors. And I still need to finish my vegetable garden.
If that isn't enough, there's always some sort of excitement around here. Mason's fish died this week. We got him last Easter. I guess that's good for a fish. I remember asking the sales associate at the pet store how long we could expect the fish to last, and she said two years or so. Unfortunately, Mason was the one to find him. It wasn't as traumatic as I thought it might be, but I was sort of unsure about how to deal with the situation. So I just let Mason lead the conversation. It wasn't much of a conversation and pretty much ended when I told him he could pick out a new fish if he wanted. He was happy with that and then went outside to play. As for me . . . well, I couldn't figure out what to do with a dead fish. So I put him in a plastic bag and put him in the refrigerator until I could talk to Seth about it. Putting him in the garbage didn't seem like the right thing to do. And burying him in the backyard did seem a bit ridiculous to me. It wasn't until I talked to Seth later that night that he asked me why I just didn't flush him down the toilet. That's what I couldn't think of . . . I knew there was something you were supposed to do with your dead beta fish!
And I also didn't mention that on the same day the fish died, there was a snake in the bale of hay I was putting out, and my thumb landed on said snake. Normally, I would yell for my husband at this point and take off running. But he wasn't here. So I ran to grab the rake because I didn't want to spread the pine straw with my hands, and I was really hoping I could find it, but I never did. So during the conversation about the dead fish, I tell Seth about the snake. He asks me, "Well, were you paying attention to what you were doing after that?"
Now, what do you think?!?