As some of you may or may not know, when I am not taking pictures I am a hospice nurse. I am fortunate enough to work a few weekend days each month, allowing me to be home with my boys during the week. The job is a bit of a love/hate relationship. I love the families, the work, the people I meet and care for. I hate that at the end of the weekend (usually two 12 hr days) I am more mentally and emotionally exhausted than I would ever think possible. Most Monday mornings after a weekend of work I wake up feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck.
Usually after coming home from work, on Sunday nights, as I am tucking Henry into bed he asks what we will do on Monday. I always answer that Ben and Samuel will go back to school and Dad back to work. He then gets a big smile, wraps his arms around my neck and says, ” you will stay home, right? So we can have a you and me day.” This is our ritual. He loves our days at home together as much as I do. We don’t usually do a whole lot. He’s just content to stay at home snuggled up on the couch with me and his blanket, play with his cars, read books etc. Yesterday we decided to do a little something different and head to the zoo.
First we hit the jungle…
I tell you, when I walked in feeling the warmth and humidity of that place I could’ve stayed all day (well…minus the smell). It felt so good to be WARM! Henry enjoyed the monkeys and we even had a little bird follow behind us for most of our walk through. He eventually ditched us, flying off to where the keepers were bringing out food. Upon trying to leave the jungle we were met with a big, fat, not so friendly looking opossum standing in front of the exit door. Evidently he thought the warm, humid jungle sounded good too. After watching him for a few minutes we headed off to find another exit and move on to the aquarium.
This was by far Henry’s favorite stop.
(pics are a little grainier at this point. It is dark in there. ISO was pumped up to 1000.)
Taking a break, watching the sharks and sting rays in the ‘tunnel’. Then moved onto see the jellyfish. I LOVE the way the camera picked them up. They glow in the tank they are in, very cool.
After going back to revisit the penguins several times we moved onto the butterfly pavilion where there are butterflies fly freely inside this beautiful place of flowers, fountains and plants. I have to say I got a little nervous when the volunteer started to explain the rules to us about not touching the butterflies or STEPPING ON THEM. As she is telling us this I am looking at Henry and thinking of all the times I saw him smash bugs last summer. But, we went in anyway…
Thankfully we left the pavilion with all butterflies still intact. Next we went in to the insect area…
Bet you can’t guess what these are….eeewwwww!
After seeing the gorillas and orangutans Henry was done. Enough zoo for one day. Before falling asleep on the way home he talked about seeing the tigers and bears the next time we visited. We got home, had lunch and one tired boy took a 3 hour nap. It was a good day. A good “you and me” day.
alison
by Alison
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