Zoo Pics III

I forget what these things are called, but Lincoln loved watching them. They totally look like they came right out of the Lion King. I think he thought they were dogs because he started making dog noises.

Ally is in nursery with Lincoln and was trying to hold his hand. This is one of those bouncy wooden bridges they're standing on. When Linc first got on it he dropped to the floor and started crawling, like it was an earthquake or something. He must take emergency preparedness classes in nursery or something :0) Anyway, Ally was trying to help him stay up, but he was not interested in holding hands with her. Just give him 15 years, then he'll be dying to!

Don't these kangaroos look a tad lathargic to you? I hope that's normal for them. Okay, so in this exhibit there was an emu or something, and it had reached it's head over the railing and totally made Lincoln crack up. I'm gonna try and blog the video I shot of the most adorable laugh you have ever heard, but I'm not sure if it'll work. Let's find out...

More Zoo Pics

They had a shark petting exhibit. I was just a little freaked out about it. I touched a shark's slimy skin and my whole body cringed. My friend Amanda was just cracking up at me. (I forgot to mention before that I had organized this zoo trip with my friends as a monthly fieldtrip thing with any of the mom's from my ward. 5 of us showed up with 6 kids in total. Yesterday, at the last minute, I thought about inviting the first year LDS dental wives to come with us, also. 5 of them said they could come with their kids. So, there was potential for a really big group. Two of the dental wives ended coming, but it was right when I was leaving to get Lincoln down for a nap. It was great, though, to get all of us out to the zoo together. So much fun.)

Lincoln in front of the penguin exhibit. He loved it because of the layered effect of being able to see under the water and above at the same time. The penguins were super playful. I would love to find some books at a garage sale or something that have a bunch of these different animals that we saw today in them. I bet he'd love that.

Below is a picture of a baby walrus. Don't be fooled by his size, he still is considered a baby. He was so funny. He would totally interact with the kids at the glass and move around and be all goofy. It was hilarious! I've only seen a dog be that playful before. It was cool.

A Day at the Zoo!

Yea! We went to the zoo for the first time in Lincoln's lifetime. The Indianapolis Zoo was awesome. What was even better is that we didn't have to pay for the parking or entrance fees because my friend's membership covered us. Free--now that's pretty awesome. Couldn't fit any better into our budget :0)

How funny is this?! Poor Jon had to be at school and couldn't come with us. But his favorite car was right smack in the front of the entrance to the zoo. It was in celebration of the Indy 500 happening this weekend. They even had their annual tortoise race at the zoo in honor of the 500. So funny. I love living here. There's always a lot of fun things going on.

In honor of my husband and any corvette fans out there who check out our blog, I had to take a couple of photos of the official Indy 500 pace car. Pretty sweet. Jon's gonna drool when he gets home today and sees these pics!

Obama! Obama!

Both of my parents are democrats, so needless to say, it has been quite an adjustment to have so many of my friends now be republicans. Jon is just the opposite. He grew up in a republican household with most of his friends supporting the GOP. Amazingly, this contrast in our upbring has not tainted our marriage. Rather it has helped us keep an open mind about all candidates. More than a year ago, Jon and I made a vow to educate ourselves about the candidates by reading their personal websites (or rather, by watching their video speeches on their websites) and recording and watching every debate from both parties. I can proudly say that we have done a very good job at doing that, although I cannot say that I am anywhere close to being an expert on the candidates. I have, however, had my favorites. I was a die-hard Mitt Romney fan. Not just because he is LDS, but because the man is brilliant and has all the abilities necessary to do exactly what our economy needs, our healthcare needs, our immigration problems need, and so on. He was amazing. And if it weren't for his religion, which people were scared of, and the nasty tricks played by McCain to confuse and sway voters, he could've rocked this primary race. Now, my #2 has been Obama from the start. Although, I was willing to change my mind about him if facts proved necessary. But after going to this rally with my mom and Jon in Indy, there's no way I'm ditching him (unless he doesn't become the nominee, of course. Then I have to make a choice that I would not be thrilled about). The rally was so amazing that it even convinced my mom that he's the best person for the job. She was a die-hard Hillary fan, but once she felt the enthusiasm and the soul-stirring energy from the crowd of supporters and Obama, himself, she changed her mind. Good job mom. Her side of the family wasn't too happy about that, though.

We went to the Hillary rally two nights before and there were maybe 6,000 people. When we approached Obama's it was a whole different story. It was so sweet. There were all sorts of people who showed up. And for the sceptics, no, they weren't all black. They were all ages, poor, rich, everything. It brought tears to my eyes to see so many people care about politics, and for probably getting involved for the first time in their life. It was so moving. Everyone had a smile on their face and was so friendly and happy. People's eyes were just shining. It felt so good, the spirit was strong, really good vibes. In terms of numbers, there was around 21,000 people. A whopping difference to Clinton's turnout. Yea Indy!

Why is Jon smiling so big? Well, to top off the whole experience, we were all surprised by a performance given by the one and only Stevie Wonder! He is one of Jon's favorites. It was super cool. And it was free! Sweet.

People wanted to be able to see Obama so badly that they even climbed trees to get a better view. I was stunned. These people really cared a lot. We found some spots on a little hill next to a ton of people and right in front of a group of handicap people. It was so crowded that everyone was practically sitting on each other's laps. The people sitting by us were pretty cool. Just really good people. We were so glad that we went. Gosh, that would be great if Obama picked Romney as his VP (yeah, that's just a little unlikely and too contradicting, but then I would get the best of both worlds. If only politics were perfect).

My Little Helper

Lincoln loves to help me water the lawn. He comes up to me and says, "Help". He does pretty well when I ask him to move around to different spots, too. He even waves the hose up and down, coping the way his mom waters. So cute. Another awesome chore he loves to help with is vacuuming. We have an attachment to our vacuum that looks like a mini vacuum. Every day Lincoln will take it out of the closest randomly and just start pushing the vacuum back and forth along the kitchen floor. It's so awesome. I love my little helper. It makes me so excited to see him catching on so quickly and naturally.

Lincoln's saying a ton of words now. Every day he adds new ones. Yesterday, while I was prepping our vegetable garden, he was playing soccor with a little 4 y.o. girl. I kept on saying the word 'kick' and then he started repeating it on his own without any prompting from me. I love this stage. It's so much fun. The funniest word he says right now is 'slide'. He can't get the 'l' to work with his tongue so it comes out like he just got back from the dentist and he's trying to talk with his mouth all numb and slurring all the letters. It's really funny. If only you could hear it.