A Lovely Summer Day

We had such a nice summer day on Saturday, the kind of day that makes you truly appreciate the season.

We started off with a morning wagon ride in the park, which included a trip around the pond (unfortunately, it's having a full-blown algal bloom, so it's incredibly stinky, gross and toxic) and time for SophieDog to socialize with some of her friends. Then Emmerson and I headed to the farmers market, since we haven't been there yet this year. My main mission was to get strawberries, but unfortunately, it also was the mission of half the city, and alas, there was nary a strawberry to be had by the time we arrived mid-morning. But we did stock up on some other treats, including raspberries, potatoes, zucchini, broccoli and some cranberry rhubarb bread. Emme really enjoyed the crowds, the musicians of various flavors (from accordian to guitar) and the odd Things from what was (hopefully) a Seussical promo. Then it was lunch and a too-short nap for Emme, as I had to wake her so we could gather up some friends and road trip to the zoo.

The girls (both adults and little ones) had such fun together. Because we arrived later in the day, the zoo wasn't crowded, and some of the animals were getting ready for feeding time, so we had a few special up-close encounters:



The zoo has a little "farm" area, so the girls could make friends with the goats, cows, pigs, chickens and other animals straight out of Old MacDonald:



Poor Delaney! One goat was especially fond of nibbling her hair:



We headed to the tropics, which included a gorgeous gibbon area:



The zoo closes at 6 p.m., which seems very early to me, but perhaps they need lots of time to feed the animals and get them into nighttime enclosures? But it was perfect timing to feed our own little bunch.



The girls were all so good the entire time! But after car rides and being in strollers for a few hours, they definitely had energy that needed unleashing, so after dinner we went to a park for an hour or so, where the girls could run amok, and run amok they did.

What a sweet moment:



Uh-oh, could be trouble!



Emme's version of red rover, red rover, send Emme right over!



Delaney turned 18 months and Emme 16 months that day; Sophia is on the brink of 20 months. The girls are at an age now where they enjoy each other's company (though the gap between Sophia and Emme is still a bit wide in some developmental areas.) It's so fun to watch them interact. Several, times, they started "singing" together, or clapping, or yelling.



It won't be long and they'll be having slumber parties!