Came Back Strong!

I expected the first couple days coming back from Winter break to be rough, but I was on top of things! Got Joli to school BEFORE the first bell! The house was clean already, so I took Markus to the zoo! The first thing we did was ride the Skyfari.

 

 Then went to the polar bear exhibit! He loved the baby.

 Markus wanted to hug "big daddy podar bear", but he couldn't figure out how.

 So he hugged the "mommy" instead.

 We went to see if they were swimming. They weren't.

 So we went to play in the caves for awhile.

 I thought the REAL polar bear was pretty cool, but Markus was happy in the tunnels.

 Then Markus noticed the "hedocopter", and he was off!

 We were very excited to find reindeer!! They were taking a break after their recent long journey :)

 We walked through the ducks and back to the Skyfari for a ride back. Seriously Markus' favorite part!

 We headed over to the children's zoo next, as we haven't been in awhile, to discover some nesting Meerkats.

 Our goal was the bug house, which was sort of fun, though not too many cool bugs.

 After a nap and picking up Joli from school, the kids were excited to work on some puzzles.

 Markus needed quite a bit of help (okay, I did the whole thing).

 Then he discovered the coloring station I set up while he was asleep!

 Joli did her first puzzle out of a box! She need some guidance as far as strategy goes, but otherwise she did great!

 While the kids were waiting for dinner, I got out the puzzles from when Joe was a kid. They loved them!

 Today I got to have lunch with Nikki, Leanh and Robyn!! Robyn's only in town for a little bit and Leanh's going to be moving soon, so I've got to soak up these adorable little boys while I can!! This is Mathew!

 And brand new, little Mikey!!

Such a great lunch! Can't wait to get together again!!