Elmwood Park Zoo with Caleb and Noah

Today we planned to get together with Dave's best friend Caleb and Caleb's little brother Noah. We planned to go to the Elmwood Park Zoo. Caleb and Noah are my friend Sarah's little boys. Sarah and I became friends shortly after having Dave and Caleb. Dave and Caleb's birthdays are only a few months apart. We try to get the boys together about once a month, but with scheduling two families sometimes it's a little bit longer. Dave just loves getting to see Caleb. Sarah also has a blog that we check out so that Dave can see what the boys are up too.

It's hard to get three boys under the age of four to all look at the camera at the same time, but two out of three isn't bad.

Of course, the day we chose to get together at the zoo was the first day of a heat wave. Although it was hot it was not too bad in the morning and most of the zoo is shaded. All the boys loved seeing the animals. Of course everyone had their favorites. Dave loved the porcupines. Today they were eating carrots instead of sleeping so that was a little different to see. Caleb loved the goats and sheep. I heard that he even got to feed one! (We had left a little bit earlier that Sarah and the boys did. Dave wanted to head out to get lunch.) I'm not sure which was Noah's favorite. He seemed to be happy just looking at everything and eating some snacks. Sarah and I both liked the prairie dogs the best. They are just so cute.

Here are a few pictures of the animals that we saw today. Both Sarah and I tried to take Dave's picture, but I guess he was a little camera shy today. Once he was able to be a turtle we were allowed to take his picture, but that was the only time.

Some new baby long horns!! Aren't they cute! We didn't see them last week so they must be very new to zoo.

Some sleeping otters. It looked like we just missed them in the water.

We also saw some lazy cougars. They were very intently watching the little birds that had flown into the cage with them. Dave was waiting for them to catch the birds.

Sarah, Caleb, and Noah, thanks for going to the zoo with us today. We had a lot of fun. On the way home Dave was asking if you could go with us again. So whenever you are ready for another trip just let us know!!

A night at lake lenape

Dave was looking for something to do tonight after we ate dinner. He said that he was tired of being bored. So we decided to take a family stroll through Lake Lenape park. We took some bread with us and started with feeding the ducks. (We met some very friendly ones this time. And they too smelled the bread as we were getting to the park.) When we were done feeding the ducks Dave asked "Now what are we going to do?" So we went for a walk down the path to see what we could find. We first found a baby turtle sitting on a log along the bank. It was very tiny and we had to look hard to see it. Dave was very happy. Turtles are his favorite animals!! After looking at the turtle we continued down the path and saw a crane. The crane was standing motionless as it looked for fish for its dinner. Dave was happy to see the different types of wildlife in the park, but he wanted to know what else we could see. We headed to the dam to wathc the water rush by with a loud roar. He liked watching the water rush over the edge. After a few minutes Dave was ready to see something else. Off we went around the path to find some other animals. We saw more ducks, some geese, birds, and lots of squirrels. We even met a cat named "Squirrel" who was out for a walk with his owners. As we were walking around both Chris and I were telling Dave stories of how we both spent our summers in the park and swimming in the creek. Our stories were so similar. You would have thought that somewhere along the way our paths must have crossed. We could not believe that Dave walked the entire way from the baseball fields on Walnut St., by the white bridges, along the path to the boyscout cabin, then to the dam, and then up the field to walk by the Sellersville firehouse, then back on the path all the back to car. I think he will sleep well tonight!

This is the baby turtle that we found sitting on a log!!! (Look very closely he is very tiny)

This is the crane that we found. Dave thought that he was trying to catch his night time snack.

A night at the Anderson's barn

This is Jess. She works for my mom and her family has been friends with my family for a long time. Jess's family own horses and she always has a fascinating story about the horses for Dave. Now every time he sees Jess the first thing he asks about are her horses. They now have 4 horses, Beulah (who is the biggest horse I have even seen and is a little intimidating to Dave. I tried to take her picture but she was scared of the camera), Kong, Snowball (who was Dave's favorite until today), and last but not least, Dave's new favorite Freedom. Dave loves to go to their barn to look at the horses. We still have not been able to get him to sit one, but I think he will soon. I guess when you are a little over three feet tall a horse must seem really big when you are looking up at it.


Jess, Dave and Freedom!








This is the picture that I tried to take of Beulah. As you can see she is a little camera shy.












Jess, thanks again for a wonderful night at the barn~I'm sure we will be back again to see the horses.

The search for the wonder pets

When we went to my parents house tonight. My mom met Dave at the car and told him she thought she heard the Wonder Pets in the woods. So off we went on the path in the woods in search of the Wonder Pets. Linny was hanging in a tree. Tuck was on a stump. And Ming-ming was on the fly boat on the bridge. Dave thought it was great that the Wonder Pets live in Nan and Pop's woods. I guess we will be doing a lot of walking on the trails the next few visits to see if we can find anyone else.

Sellersville carnival

Tonight we went to the Sellersville carnival. Dave loved watching all of the people and the rides. He just had to pick a duck to win a prize. It took him a few minutes to pick just the right one! He picked a large prize duck, but he wanted the small whale prize, so the lady was nice enough to let Dave pick three small whales in place of one large toy. We then headed over for waffles and ice cream. Dave of course had just the waffle minus the ice cream, but he didn't seem to mind.

Swimming time

Dave is always excited at the idea of swimming, but once he gets to the pool he needs some coaxing to get in. Once we have him in he takes to the water like a fish. Dave is starting to kick and move his arms and is learning to swim. He even likes to go in the tubes by himself and kick around (of course someone is always within arms reach).

Trying to feed the ducks

The other night we went to feed the ducks with my mom. When we got to the Dairy Queen in Perkasie near the park there where no ducks to be found. So we thought we would go to the white bridges in the park with the hopes of finding some. When we turned around and started to head to the white bridges we looked up the road and the ducks were crossing the road. According to Dave the ducks must have smelled the bread that was in the car when drove by them. So off we went to the white bridges. But once again there were no ducks to be found. So we started to head back and Dave began to wave the bread in the air so the ducks could smell it again. Dave told us that if you drive a bread truck then you have ducks following you all the time. We thought that was a pretty genius form of reasoning for a three year old. As we were getting to the car, we saw some ducks (or geese they are all ducks to Dave). So we headed down the meet them. As we got closer and began to throw bread, they began to come at us with their big wings flapping and beaks open, so I grabbed Dave and ran (best I could in flip flops) and my mom threw the bread and ran too. Needless to say, this is the only picture that we got. We'll have to try to find some nicer ducks in the future.