The Trip that Almost Didn't Happen

We were planning a trip to spend an early weekend with Uncle Grant and Lala. We were supposed to leave Thursday morning. 8 hours before we were supposed to leave Ryan woke up vomiting - and it didn't stop before it was time to leave. So we called and cancelled. But by the afternoon Ryan had been vomit free since right after breakfast. When I worked at the nursing home, the policy was vomit-free for 24 hours and you were no longer contagious, so we called and said that if no one threw up before the next morning, we'd come for a shorter visit. The twins had one of the best nights of the recent past, and we left the next morning!

One of the biggest highlights of Uncle Grant & Aunt Lala's house is their dog Indy - a Great Dane! The twins had never before met a dog who had to stoop just to be at eye level, and they were thrilled! They loved being so close to such a big dog!

Feeding Indy their graham crackers - these pictures do not do a great job of showing her size...

Another highlight of the trip was going to the Columbus Zoo for "Boo at the Zoo." Not only were we going to see another great zoo, but it was going to be an extra opportunity for the twins to wear their costumes!

Brief tangent to talk about the costumes: I have always wanted to be one of those moms who makes their kids' costumes. I've never been especially crafty or even been able to sew, but I've wanted to have those abilities. Last year it just wasn't feasible, but this year I was determined. I decided they would be Pebbles and Bam bam (because Allie frequently rocks the 1 center ponytail look). My first challenge was figuring out how to make Pebbles and Bam Bam outfits that fit our October climate. So I decided to go with Pebbles and Bam Bam meet the Ice Age :) I sewed the pants and vests (without patterns and using my sewing machine for the first time!), made bones out of clay, glue gunned everything that needed it, even made a little hat for Ryan (that he refused to wear). Previously I would have said that their Christmas pjs were my favorite things I had ever made, but now it is most definitely these costumes! The bonus? The total cost for these costumes was less than $10 for BOTH!!! Ok, that is the end of my brief bragging tangent :)
The best pictures I could get of them together...not sure why they both have 1 leg up...

The zoo was PACKED, but we didn't wait in line long before we were in and having fun! The Columbus Zoo is a really great zoo with some fun, interactive places like the hands-on tide pool where they were able to touch some cool creatures.

The play area was a big hit, and we ended up spending a lot of time there. My favorite part was when the twins got some of the shy-er kids to go down the slide by clapping and getting everyone else to clap for them. It made me happy to see them enthusiastically encouraging others (granted, that was after they pushed them out of the way when said shy kids blocked the slide for too long...always something to work on...)

Ry-guy celebrates another successful slide :)

Another fun stop was the toddler straw maze. Ryan and Allie went through the maze with Uncle Grant and Lala.

Ryan dragging Uncle Grant through.

Allie took forever because she kept wanting to stop and touch the straw.

After the maze they took some time to play in the straw...

Ryan decided to continue throwing handfuls of straw in the air...

While Allie enjoyed Uncle Grant throwing her up so high!

Uncles are awesome.

Of all the animals we saw, the highlight happened to be our last stop: the Polar Bears. They were exceptionally active and the 2 sisters were playing with and fighting over a ball. We got to see each of them jump in the water...

it may not be obvious but this bear is mid-air!

...and they both played in the water right in front of the twins - even bouncing the ball against the window near them! They ran and jumped and stole the ball from each other. It was a blast, and a great way to end the day!

We are so glad we were still able to go and spend some time with Grant & Lala! We had so much fun! Thank you so much!