Mom, Gabe, and Claire made a spur of the moment trip back to Illinois to see family and friends. Daddy stayed home with Koko so he wouldn't miss school that week. Grandma took 2 days off work to have fun with us. The first day, we went to the zoo. Gabriel didn't want his picture taken. He just wanted to go on to see the next animals.
Claire dressed for the occasion in her leopard print dress.
Gabriel insisted on wearing his giraffe hat since the zoo has a new Africa exhibit.
The lion was right up next to the glass. She couldn't stop following every move Claire made with her eyes. The male lion was lying in the back of the enclosure in the shade.
"I'm big, Mom" was the quote we heard a lot of when Gabe wanted to push the stroller.
We got a picture outside the zoo at the lion sculptures when we were done.
One evening Mom went out with her friend Angie and Angie's friend Dustin. The lane next to ours broke and if you look really closely you can see 2 pairs of legs up by the pins trying to get it fixed.
Mom got 3 strikes in a row! A turkey! The graphic on the screen was a lot better when it showed the turkey but we were too slow with the camera.
This is typical of Claire. She is always walking around with her sippy cup in one hand and some sort of toy in the other hand. In this case, she thought she had a purse even though I think it was a saxophone strap.
The second day Grandma was home with us, we went to the orchard to pick apples.
Claire had a bumpy ride out to the apple trees but she enjoyed watching Gabe fill the bag with apples.
The orchard had a little playground where the kids played for awhile. Gabe rode on every toy they had.
They had a little miniature golf course which both kids played on. Gabe hit the ball with the club.
And Claire just put the balls in the holes with her hands.
Gabe had a lot of fun on the twisty slide. He went on it "5" times (which is a large number in Gabe's world). It was probably more like 25 times.
Can't you read the sign, Gabe? NO STANDEES PERMITTED
After the playground, Gabe fed some goats.
Then he wanted his picture taken with Mickey Mouse.
On the trip back to Minnesota, we stopped in Iowa to see Great Grandma Anderson who hasn't seen us since Christmas. Gabe didn't want his picture taken with her since he was enjoying playing the piano at the nursing home too much. One day he will be a fantastic musician.
