Summer Fun from A to Z

Well, we've had a full summer.  It's hard to believe that school starts tomorrow.  The past few months have been full of adventures and memory-making.  As we lived through them, they just seemed like days, but now looking back, it seems like it all went way faster than that.  We truly have had summer fun from A to Z.  On the day Koen got out of school, we boarded an Airplane to Texas and on the day before school, we had a super fun, long morning at the Zoo.  I couldn't resist a full alphabetical (and not chronological) list of a sampling of our summer...

Airplane rides
Bedroom change-up
Creek walk
Digging
Evening campfires
Fireworks
Gramma & Grampa
Hilton Head
Ice cream
Jumping Jansen
Kidz Gig
Libraries
Museums
Nana & PopPop
Osceola Parklet
Picnics
Quiet afternoons
Rest
Spray parks
Texas
Uncle Zac & Aunt Abbie
Van rides
Water fun (pools, the ocean, canoeing, etc)
X-ploring
Yardwork
Zoo

Ha!  Anyways, we had a great visit to the zoo to mark our final day of summer.  We went with Deborah and the kids, but we had Emmett, our neighbor buddy along as well (that's right folks, I took 5 boys to the zoo).  All of our visits to the zoo this year have been memorable and this was no exception.  Of course I have pictures for a review of some of the highlights....

The Amur Leopard was doing its thing where it paces along the glass.  It's amazing.  Look at how the boys are right up against him!!

We got to the elephants just as they were having bathtime and their brunch.  It was so much fun to watch them get washed down.  We stayed in there for about 15 minutes.  I could watch elephants all day, they are such amazing creatures!

On the way out of the elephant area, we passed a cage used for transporting elephants.  We couldn't resist forcing the kids to do a picture.  We tried to have them do their wild animal faces, but this is what we got.

(Tavin and Penn played along in this one and are being elephants).

The cheetahs were also pacing along the edge of their exhibit, so we got some great views of their amazing coats and tails.  

The cutest creatures at the zoo were our kids of course.  =)  Possibly headed up by these two adorable buddies...Penn Rye and Hazel holding hands.

It was one of our priorities to see the new indoor part of The Islands area.  There was some fun and interesting hands-on stuff there for the kids to check out.

Next we headed up to the aquarium.  This time we went inside and got to see the penguins and made sure to visit the sting rays and the boys all crawled through the underwater tunnel.  I didn't get any pics though because I was off nursing Jansen.  I had to snap a shot (just my face).  Because I've spent a summer of nursing this sweet babe on the go during the day.  I'm a private person, I like nursing where no one can see, but with 3 other kiddos, that's just not always an option.  So, I do what I must.  And this frames it up.

What was hilarious is that I was trying to be in a quiet spot with few people around and then out of nowhere a huge peacock flew down from an upper level of the building and rested about 6 feet from me.  Then people just started crowding around with their cameras to check she and her plume around.  I was trying to turn invisible!  Anyways, it was hilarious...classic!  After I finished feeding Jansen and recovered from my embarrassment, I met the others in the aquarium and shortly after we all got outside where we saw that one polar bear was in the water, so we quickly rushed down to check it out.  On the way, Penn wanted to pose (while make polar bear noises) in the polar bear transportation cage.

See the cute polar bear in the water??

And here's the other one up on top of the rocks.  He was moving all around from side to side, doing some sort of dance.  Not sure if it was almost lunchtime or mating season. 

We went down into the underwater tunnel to try and get a glimpse of the polar bear in the water and all we could see was his big, furry backside (still cute though, gotta say).

Another goal was to visit the playground we've had to skip during every other visit to the zoo this summer.  The boys were thrilled to climb through the multi-level tunnels and enjoy the slides, etc.  Penn liked the animals he could climb on.

Hazel did too.

Before we left the house in the morning, Koen had asked me if he could bring some of his money along.  I said yes with a few simple rules attached.  He really had one thing on his mind.  The log ride.  I thought this was so sweet because these logs go sooooo slowly along a little lazy river.  But he'd never gotten to go, so he was sure this was going to be great.  It was a dollar a ticket and he offered to buy his brothers a ride too!  I was so proud of him for being generous and thoughtful!  Funny enough, Miles had also asked his mom if he could bring some money along and so he also wanted to do this ride and paid for his siblings.  Great big brother moment for these two!!  Here's Koen and Penn enjoying the ride.

Tavin and Claire buddied up of course.

After the log ride, we slowly headed out of the zoo (poor Jansen was soooo tired, but it took us forever to work our way back to the van because of about ten random elongations!).  Here's a quick pit stop for a group pic which a few kids bailed on at the last minute.

We didn't leave the zoo until 1:40pm and when we got home I put Jansen and Penn to bed so fast!  I was hoping to get a picture of my 4 boys and I, but it just wasn't in the cards.  Oh well.  We have so many from the summer.  I just wanted one last one to capture this last fun morning out of this glorious summer we've enjoyed together.  It's truly been a special time for me as a mom.  What a blessing to have four healthy boys to explore the world with each and every day.  Sometimes we just did the simple stuff and other times enjoying some elaborate adventures.  I will always remember this summer and I'm going to have a hard time letting it go.

So, our last day wasn't done quite yet...
Once the little guys were down and Emmett went home, the boys and I made chocolate chip cookies.  Baking together was a favorite at-home activity and I wanted to have something fun to put into the boys' lunchboxes on the first day.  Yum!

Our final activity before the little guys were up from their naps was packing up the school supplies we'd been collecting over the last few weeks.  Tav was particularly excited.  First day of school, first backpack full of supplies, everything so new and fresh and exciting!!

Well, that's the end of our summer.  Let the new season of life begin (well, I guess I can't keep it from happening so I'm accepting it).  I pray it's a great school year for Koen and Tavin and I'm already excited for next summer. =)  Love you boys.  I'll miss you every day, but I'm excited to see all you learn and experience at school this year.