wip 9.10.11

friday:
the last weekday of our staycation.
we did nothing. ;)
okay, i'm sure we did something. i just didn't take pictures.
the only pics on my camera are of food. imagine that!

we made buffalo chicken grilled cheese. {loosely based on this recipe that i pinned.}
so good. so rich. couldn't eat too much of it. but it was 100x better with ranch dressing! ;) and they weren't bad as leftovers either. double bonus.

saturday:
our friends hosted their annual cook out.
had a fun pinata for the kids.

distracted by some ice cream.

and another flavor since he didn't like the first one.

candy!

headed to the playground while the boys, ahem men, went to play softball.

then we headed over to the baseball diamond and the kids ran the bases. ben had a great time. 

somebody found a ball... imagine that!

dandelion love.

came back and ben wanted to play some tennis. nick hit him in the head with both throws! ben decided he didn't want to play that game anymore! 

kids found a puddle. i'm not sure what they were making. rock soup? 

and somebody sat down! :-)

sunday:
we tried to do as little as possible. wanted to make the most of our down time.
ben was on a ball kick...

gotta love that kid.
and that concludes our wonderful week off. ;(

fort wayne zoo.

i love this place. wish it were just a wee bit closer!

didn't have a lot planned for our staycation. but the weather wasn't looking favorable for us to go any day but tuesday. i still wasn't feeling good, but we decided to go anyway. so glad we did. ben LOVED it. gotta figure out if we can work boo at the zoo into our hectic schedule.

the weather would have been absolutely perfect, if it were a bit less windy!

there were hardly any people there. i love going when the kids are back in school. ;)

nick driving a jeep after we rode the sky way. {if you go, don't bother. you just go over trees. not too exciting.}

ben liked telling us where we should go!

some pretty purple flowers.

mr. {or mrs.} pelican. ben did not want to leave!

trying to find the lion. the window was so clean, ben walked right into it! was kinda funny!

i forget what these were but ben enjoyed them.

some pretty leaves. couldn't believe they were changing so early.

giraffes. i love them. couldn't feed them this year though. they were too far away!

this ostrich was so close!

ben taking a quick nap.

a cool tree stump. 

ben loved drumming. he even stopped to tell nick he was doing it wrong. said, 'no, daddy, wike dat.'

pretty sure he got to ride the same pony as last year. ;) {see last year's zoo post here.}

loved the round and round too. 

had the cutest little tree house for kids. ben would have spent all afternoon playing there if we would have let him!

total fan of the otter. 

and the fishes. 

on the boat ride. <3

 silly sun decided to come out right then. must edit this picture!

seriously, i might have to say this is my favorite part of the zoo. gasp, i'm ranking them above my beloved giraffes! it's just so damn cool to walk amongst them.

rode the train. ben loved it.
and those eyes kill me.

tried to get ben to feed the ducks, geese, and peacocks. he was happy letting 'mommy do it.'

he finally just decided to throw the feed! smart boy.

totally exhausting day. but so worth it.