Outdoor weekend

*Sidenote: The pictures look funky, I'm not sure why, they're fine on my computer but blogger is doing something funny with them.  I'll try taking them off and putting them on later today...


So the weather has been 100% perfect here for about a week or two!  So we've spent a lot of time outside.  Specifically this weekend.

After a rough week, all I wanted was a family weekend.  The 8 month old I watch during the school year started back last week as his mom started school.  I watched him back in the spring, but he was still pretty little.  And then he spent the summer home with his mom, which was so nice for them and a nice break for me.  But now he's at a rough age to be seperated from his mom all day.  He just doesn't understand and it's a hard transition for him.  I feel so bad for the little guy, and for his mom who I know hates to leave him.  He's cried a lot and consequently, it's been equally as hard on me. 

So this weekend, we left work behind, and had a blast enjoying the great outdoors.  We started off by taking Anna to the local zoo with the free passes we had for doing the library program.  She loved watching the animals and even missed her morning nap without caring because she enjoyed it so much!  Here are some pictures from the zoo:

Getting ready the night before, in her giraffe pjs with her two favorite friends!

Wallabys!  It made me miss Australia!

Checking out the tiger with daddy!

Watching the sea lion get fed

The petting zoo was closed that day, but the goats stuck their head out and the child with no feat pet them anyway!

Then after the zoo we went to the park which is across from the zoo.  Anna got to swing, play in the water at the splash park, and sit on the slide!

That afternoon Anna took a 3 hour nap and we enjoyed dinner with my family because my sister goes back to school this week!

Then yesterday (Sunday) after Mass we drove to a local State Park.  It's where we went on our honeymoon and we've made it a point to go every year since.  There are lots of hiking trails and picnic areas.  It was a gorgeous day, like 78 degrees with a little breeze.  Perfect for hiking.  So we started with a picnic lunch.  Then we did some hiking.  Jeremy wore Anna in the Mei Tei and couldn't believe how comfortable it was!  Anna quickly fell asleep and enjoyed the hike.  Here are some pictures from our hike:

Picnicking with daddy!

Very old tree stump.  Jeremy and his dad and brothers used to come hike all of the time and they always took a picture with the giant stump... so he felt obligated to take one with Anna!

Picture at lover's leap!

Lots of stairs to get to the actual Starved Rock.  Anna was asleep pretty quickly!

Being a ham for everyone, there were lots of people sitting on the bench across from us and she ate it up!

She loves her daddy!

We then came home, had homemade pizzas for dinner and enjoyed watching Anna try to crawl.  She's almost there, it will be very very soon!  We need to do family weekends like this more often...  It was absolutely wonderful and reenergized us all for our work week!

And as a side note, Anna sadly grew out of her 3-6 month clothes (seemingly overnight) and I spent naptime this morning putting them away... It's sad to see her get so big so fast... So a week short of six months and she's moved on to the next size!