Good Bye Summer!

Summer went to sleep with the sun tonight. My best girl and I decided to send it off with one last summery kind of day.

We went to the zoo! It’s actually a sanctuary, which is different. It’s better than a zoo because the animals are all rescued and unable to live in the wild. They are not in captivity for the sake of human recreation and most of them are animals local to our area (the above lady excepted). This makes them a little less exotic of course (above lady excepted), but still fun to see and in most cases, not hiding behind weird glass boxes. (The above picture was not taken with zoom!) It’s not as great as a zoo in the way of mama conveniences either. The only bathroom is outside the entrance, all the way to the front.  Not awesome.

Anyway, it was a new place for us and a fun way to spend the morning.

Um, someone missed the concept of acting like a big, scary bear. RAWR. Or, “Hi Mama!” as the case may be.

We had fun learning about the animals and seeing them in a natural-ish environment, but the allure wore off fairly quickly. It was a lot of walking and not a lot of sightings. . . and the whole potty thing.

Luckily, we’d scoped out a park right next door. We’d also packed some food for a picnic so we headed over to play, relax, and snack.

Our lunching, relaxing plans were disrupted as soon as Amelia saw this park.

A really awesome park! All of the structures (wagon, hotel, steam coach depot) had various park playthings like bells, puzzles, etc. The covered wagon had a steering wheel that Amelia LOVED.

“I’m turning the WHEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLL!” There were even gear shifters off to the right. So cute.

Then there was this

“I see everybody swinging, mama!!!”  She looks like some kind of pioneer, wagoneering, westward bound spy. And I should know, as an historian and all.

And speaking of swings, Amelia can swing all day long. “I’m flying in the sky with the birdies!” She swings at the parks near our house all the time.

But these swings? They took swinging to a whole new dimension.

Yep. A CHAIR swing! How cool is that? Well, look at that little face. I mean, if that doesn’t say cool, I don’t know what does.

It was a good day, but we were beat by lunch. Still recovering from yesterday, we were both ready to head home and take a nap.  I asked Amelia if she wanted to stop and get some tacos or eat somewhere on the way home since I had to drag her away from that park. To which she said, “No mama. Let’s just go home and eat.”  Um, okay?

After lunch, Amelia slept for THREE hours. The poor thing. It really was a big day yesterday. Part of me probably was just trying to recover myself in taking her on an outing today. To reclaim the mommy/baby days, I guess. Now that she’s all academic and whatnot.

By evening, I’d decided that Wednesdays shall be for staying around the house and playing it easy. Preschool is seriously tiring stuff and Wednesday is her (read: OUR) day to rest in between. She went to bed on time tonight and went right to sleep, even though she’d only gotten up from nap a few hours earlier (when I finally went in and woke her!) and typically talks and sings to herself for a long while.

Tired Bug. Good news is that tomorrow is our whole family’s Friday! (Yes, Thursday is my Friday. Don’t hate.) Weekend!

Wish us luck for another great day at Preschool tomorrow!!

And so long summer. You’ve been good to us and we love you so. And it’s time for you to go. Until next time, friend.