Fun at the Brookfield Zoo!

 

We recently went to explore our new neighborhood.  We decided to check out the Brookfield Zoo.  It was very nice.  The kids got to ride the carousel and the tram.  We even saw a dolphin show.

We had to go under the street to get to the Zoo.

 

 

 

 Lions,

 Tigers,

 And Bears, Oh My!

 Some of the dolphins before the show.

 The carousel!

Fun at the Pierce County Fair

Since we would not be in Washington for the Puyallup fair, we made sure we went to the Pierce County Fair.

 Here is Benny on one of his favorite rides, the rollercoaster!

 He really enjoyed riding in this car.

 We even did the bumper cars!

 Poor Timmy!  He was sad that he was not tall enough to go on any of the rides.  The nice lady who ran this ride let him do this one.  It was a big bear that spun around while it turned around.  I made sure we were not spinning too fast and Timmy had a blast.

Benny's Birthday (Last one in Washington State)

Benny celebrated his 5th birthday with an Angry Birds party.  We were fortunate that a lot of his friends could be there since it was his last birthday in Washington State.

 Hanging out with is best friend Connor.

 Blowing out the candles on his Angry Bird cake.

A "bird's eye" view of his cake.

I didn't get to take a lot of pictures because we were having so much fun. 

Pictures from the move!

Here are some pictures from our move across the country.

We stopped at Mount Rushmore.

And at the famous Wall Drug Store.

And a trip through South Dakota would not be complete without stopping at The Corn Palace in Mitchell.

My view during most of the trip.

Benny had a blast riding in the big truck with Grandpa and Daddy.

Illinois

Well, we made it!  We are now official Illinois residents.  It was quite an adventure getting here.  We left Saturday August 25th hoping to spend the night in Spokane.  At the first hotel we stopped at, we were told that all the rooms at that hotel plus at every other hotel were booked for the night.  Turns out that the freshman were heading to Gonzaga that weekend.  We ended up finally finding a place in Kellogg, ID.   The next day we our final destination was Billing, MT.  The next day we headed to Rapid City, SD.  That night we caught the night time presentation at Mt. Rushmore.  They ended the program by honoring any active military service men/women as well as veterans.  My dad actually went down and participated which made me very proud.  I had to explain to the boys why Grandpa was down there.  The next day we headed out with hopes of spending the night in Iowa, but we ended up in Sioux Falls, SD.  We stopped at Wall Drug and Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace.  We arrived on Thursday (one extra day) and toured the house and moved in the beds so we could have somewhere to sleep. We are very thankful that my parents (Grandma and Grandpa) were able to come and help us move and thanks to my sisters (and John) who came and help us unload the truck.  I will hopefully post pictures of our trip when I can find them.

Let's Play Ball!

Time for Baseball!

We had great seats.  We had dinner at the ballpark.  Chicken fingers and french fries, Yum!

Benny and Timmy explored the play area at the ball park!

Silly Benny!

 

 

Benny's good luck streak continues.  The Mariners won!

Last Monday we checked another thing off of our Western Washington Bucket List.  We took the boys to a Seattle Mariners game.  They were playing the Baltimore Orioles.  The boys were not much into sitting and watching the game.  They would rather walk around, play in the play area or watch the trains that went by.  When I asked Benny what part of the ball game he liked the best, he replied, "When they won!"

Whale Watching!

Benny and Daddy reviewing the map.

Mommy and Timmy on the windy boat.

An Orca named Rhapsody who loved to breach.

Fist bumping with Dad!

Rhapsody breaching yet again.  She did this about 52 times!

Here we are at the end of our 4 hour trip.

For our 13th Wedding Anniversary we decided to go see the Orca whales that live in Puget Sound.  Brad found out that a friend from the Philly area was working for a company called Island Adventures and they provide whale watching tours.  So, we booked our trip and Brad's friend Mike was actually there when we arrived for our tour.  He was the wildlife expert and explained a lot about the Orcas, harbor seals and eagles that we saw on our tour.