Back in NY

The weekend and the beginning of the week were a little rough as I came back from NH with a bug of some sort that left me tired, run down and nauseated.

We still managed to get out and enjoy the weather over the weekend.  Saturday there was a flag day parade downtown which entertained MiniM.E. for much longer than expected.  Afterwards we wandered around downtown and ended up at our friends' backyard to visit for a while.

Father's Day we just hung around the house.  Bob played a lot with MiniM.E. while I tried to recover from the mysterious bug.  We managed a trip to the grocery store and a trip to the mall.  Not a very exciting day, but Bob bought a treadmill, so it was a happy Father's Day for him.

Finally on Monday I was starting to feel more like myself so MiniM.E. and I took our first ever solo beach trip.  We met our old neighbors there and MiniM.E. was super and had a great time.  We will be spending lots of days at the beach this summer.

Yesterday we went to the sprayground downtown with some friends.  MiniM.E. wanted the water to be warmer but we had a nice time anyway...

BUT after all the sun and outdoors, she was exhausted today and requested an "inside day" (with the exception of playing on the deck for five minutes) so we've just been hanging around.  Which is a nice break...

Tomorrow- back to the beach!!

Relaxing in NH

MiniM.E. and I are in NH this week taking a little break from everything.  While I love being in the new house, every free second I feel like I need to be tackling one of the little projects I have left to complete the move or make the house feel more like home.  It's so nice to take a break and really take a break from EVERYTHING.  MiniM.E. loves my parents house and we've just been playing and relaxing.  They opened their pool and we went in a couple times, but it wasn't very long lived as it hasn't been super hot and the water is still a little on the icy side.  The big hits are the hot tub, the kiddie pool (filled with hot tub water) on the deck and of course, the trampoline.

Today we went to the Friendly Farm because it was such a big hit last year.  We arrived amidst the chaos of a couple school groups and MiniM.E. was a little intimidated by the bigger kids and didn't seem excited to do anything.  Though my child often will act like I've decided to take her to a lecture on microbiology when in fact we are actually at the coolest playground or the beach or any other amazing toddler destination.

Fortunately, the school groups left, MiniM.E. came out of her shell and we spent a lovely few hours with the animals.  So lovely MiniM.E. didn't want to leave- at least not without taking some of the animals with her.  We fed the baby goats-- food and bottles, had a "goat parade" in which MiniM.E. made the goats chase her around thinking they were getting food from her feed bag, held the baby chicks and saw one that had just hatched, visited with the other grown animals, fed the two baby sheep and got our fingers suckled and even bottle fed the baby cow her WHOLE bottle.

Thanks Friendly Farm- definitely lived up to last year!  Looking forward to going again in 2015 with both the girls!!

Adirondack Animal Land

We've been hearing lots of great things about a zoo not to far from Saratoga, Adirondack Animal Land.  Yesterday we decided to check it out.  It was a great zoo- especially for an 80 degree day since it was all in the shade.  It was really hands on and we got to feed ALL the animals.  The monkeys grabbed cereal out of our hands and all the other animals would eat pellets or crackers out of our hands.  They had monkeys and zebras and wild cats and kangaroos.

MiniM.E. was timid with most of the animals but she couldn't wait to feed the giraffe!

checking out the goats

wait, you want them to eat off my hand? with those teeth??

best part of the day!

 The zoo was a nice paved loop that wandered past all the animal enclosures plus a few picnic spots and a playground (always a hit).

hi cow!

There was a deer enclosure where you could feed and pet 18 deer (I think babies are on the way!).  MiniM.E. braved it and touched a few, but still didn't want to feed them.

 I was pretty excited by this kangaroo mom and her joey that kept popping in and out of her pouch.

Aside from feeding the giraffes, the highlight of the zoo trip was definitely the safari ride that is included in the admission.  You get to ride in a tractor pulled wagon and camels, ostriches, longhorn cattle, pot-bellied pigs and more come right up to the wagon for snacks doled out by the announcer.  This camel was literally IN the wagon:

MiniM.E. had a great time, though I think Bob and I and our friend Ray probably enjoyed ourselves even more than she did.  Definitely another place worth a repeat visit!