Zoo Fun

The Little Rock Zoo had a members' night picnic this past Friday night...unlimited carousel and train rides, along with dinner (pulled pork, hot dogs & trimmings, and ice cream sundaes), keeper chats, and a less crowded zoo! It was lots of fun, but Joseph's favorite, as usual, was the carousel. Our zoo has an awesome carousel. It is called the "Over the Jumps" Carousel where the track moves up and down instead of the horses. It is over 60 years old, and quite painstakingly restored, and I believe the only one of its kind still operating.

Here are 2 videos of Joseph riding with Daddy.

The little man is smart, I must say! I don't have video of it yet (except on my cell phone...with no way to transfer it yet), but he can pretty much sing his ABC song...very cute. I'll try to get video for here soon. Here's just another picture or 3 just because!

Notice where his head is at...the architect in the family says the bars aren't supposed to be that far apart!

Big Boy!

Joseph has been busy...here are some pictures to get you up to date...

We'll start with the most recent and work our way back in time!

June 17th, Watching the Arkansas Travellers playing at Dickey Stephens Park. Every year, my hospital has an employee night at the park, so we went to check out the game. Joseph had lots of fun.

June 14th, Papaw Joe's new tractor...Joseph helped him drive it as soon as it was off the trailer!

Joseph's new tractor to match Papaw's!


Helping Daddy "fix it".

Letting Daddy ride it!

Can you tell he loves that tractor?

June 13th, Here is Joseph at the 52nd annual Bradley County Pink Tomato (Salmonella Free) Festival...his favorite part was the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission aquarium, full of "big fish and turtles"! Don't you just love that grin!

June 8th, A very hot day at the Little Rock Zoo...feeding the fish with Daddy, followed by the messy hair photo!

Now for some random shots, including JJ running, smiling, wearing Daddy's bubble hat, just hanging out, doing some light reading, and finally, JoJo the contortionist...

The Rest of the Week!

Sorry, but we were just having too much fun for me to have time to blog while in Atlanta! I'll start off with the rest of our zoo pictures that I couldn't get to load last time. These are mostly fun pictures of Mom & JJ taken by Dad. Just to sneak a few in. I would post panda pictures, but you didn't come here for pandas, now did you??

On Monday, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. Jon and I got to go there in 2006, so we knew Joseph would love it. He really has a thing for fish and water. It was still pretty awesome, but our little boy wore out pretty fast.

Looking at the alligators (another one of the many words he can say)

Checking out piranhas with dad.

Making sure no one misses the beluga whales...

Not even the group of 4 & 5 years olds...yes, he is almost as big as they are!

Isn't he CUTE???

On Tuesday, we "rested". At least that was the plan. But, we still ended up going back to the downtown area, and we visited Centennial Olympic Park. The best part of the park is the Olympic Rings fountain for the kids to play in. We obviously didn't dress appropriately, but we still had fun (and squishy shoes). Joseph is now saying "water, touch it" because we "touched" the water of the fountains. He also played on the playground there.

On Wednesday, back to the same area, but to World of Coca-Cola. Joseph can now say "Coca-cola" and "polar bear". We saw the Coke polar bear, and Joseph just kept saying "pol-ar bear", until we finally got close to him, then he balked. He did pick out a stuffed one from the gift shop though. As you are leaving World of Coca-Cola, you are given a commerative glass bottle of Coke that was bottled there on site while you were probably going through the exhibits, so we brought those home, and will share them with Joseph soon.






Thursday, Friday and Saturday--the real reason for the trip. Mom went to her conference which was amazing and so very educational! While she was learning away, Joseph & Dad roamed. Here they are in Piedmont Park...Jon was lucky to get in considering he was actually bring his own child and wasn't a nanny!


Joseph had to learn to share the swing on the 2nd day...he didn't like it.



Loved the firetruck day 1, didn't go near it day 2!!

And finally, the only way we survived a 9 hour car trip..."Movies, On, PEASE!!" Joseph really enjoyed watching the SAME video over and over again on the built in DVD player. At least we only drove as far as Tupelo on Saturday, then visited part of the Natchez Trace before coming on back to Little Rock on Sunday.

Sorry it took me so long to get this out, but it was worth it, right? Ya'll have fun!

More Atlanta

Wow! We've been busy, but having lots of fun. Overall, I must say, Joseph is doing really well, considering it's a strange environment and he's very tired! He's had a blast so far. Here's hoping the days with him & Dad are just as fun.

Sunday...Zoo Atlanta

We had a great time at the zoo. Joseph enjoyed running around to all the animals. We got to see the much anticipated baby panda, but all she did was sleep! She's about 3 weeks older than Joseph...too bad he doesn't sleep that much anymore. They have some really great exhibits, and lots of neat animals, but I know who you are all here to see, so I won't bore you with pictures of animals.

Joseph & Dad checking out the giraffes...

He's supposed to be looking at the Western Lowland Gorillas...lots of babies in this family group.

Now, he's looking at the gorillas...

While I was waiting in line to get the tickets for the train and carousel, the lady running the carousel told Jon and Joseph to go ahead and get on, thinking I would be there soon with the tickets! Well, the line was longer than she expected because they were almost done riding when I got through! So, lucky Joseph got to ride the carousel twice. As for the train...OMG! He loved it. Thanks to Mawmaw Mae, he now says "Chugga Chugga Choo Choo" almost all the time. It's cute...but sorry, Mom, it gets a little old!

And, finally, what's the most important part of visiting the zoo? Playing on the playground!!

On Monday we went to the Georgia Aquarium, which was awesome, and Tuesday was a bit more restful. We still managed to wear ourselves out with a visit to Centennial Olympic Park. But...I'm worn out and posting is slow tonight, so those pictures will have to wait. I want to do them justice! There are still more pictures that I want to post from the zoo, but right now, I really want to go to bed, so they (and you) will have to wait! Sorry...more soon.