Johnsons at the zoo

Here we are...

Zoo animals

On Friday Feb 13th, Wes took a vacation day so we could all spend time together as a family. We went to the zoo to try to show Armour the elephants as they are his favorite animals and he has never actually seen one in person. Sadly, the elephants were off display because it was too cold. We did not let that deter us! We saw a lot of fun animals, and this is a blog to show some of those to you. I will do another post with pics of the Johnsons at the zoo. Check out these animals:

A recently deceased butterfly in the butterfly house.

Tapir momma and baby...
Ender and Armour's closest relative...

Little Einstein

A couple funky dudes

One guy

Training the funky dudes

Getting trained

What are these animals looking at?

They are looking at this funky bird...

Solace's favorite animal. (Actually she likes the way bigger snake best)

Boo!

Whoo Whoo...(Actually this is not an owl, I cannot remember what he is though.)

Pumba, not in front of the kids!

Vulture

Coatimundi

This picture freaked me out...

There are alligators in this dark area that scared the oldest 2 Johnson kids poopless...

Beavers in the dark

Icy

Love this statue and this is a great pic of it!

These little orangutans were looking at and interacting with the kids through the glass.

Here they are...(the kids, not the monkeys)

Videos by kids...

At the Museum there was this thing where the kids could make their own videos. Here are Solace's and Ender's videos.

"Winter Break" Children's Museum

So, Solace had Feb 12, 13 and 16th off school. I am calling it her winter break. On Thursday the 12th, we took Solace to the Children's Museum here in town. We played a lot of fun activities and had a blast. Almost immediately upon going into the first area we ran into a friend from Solace's class and she played with us for a long time from room to room and activity to activity. It was great. Here are lots of fun pictures.

So, there is this playhouse in one room where the kids played for a while. Here is Armour as a baby in the crib... Solace and friend
Kindle in the crib...what is it that makes this tiny crib so much better than her big one at home? She cries when I put her in her crib, and cries when I took her out of this crib...

There is a temporary exhibit called "Road to the White House." The next pics are from that room. This one is Solace in front of the podium where she gave a speech.

OK, politics aside, Armour LOVES Barack Obama. Mostly because he likes to say his name, and of course we have explained to him that he is our new President. When we got to the end of the exhibit and there was the Obama life size stand up poster, Army got a bit excited and started screaming "Barack Obama, Barack Obama!!!" Here is a picture that actually captures his excitement pretty well. He is pretty sure he has actually met Barack Obama now...he just thought he was a quiet guy I guess...

At the President's desk in the Oval Office...

Army, still excited about "meeting" Barack Obama, pulled the girls over for a picture. They were willing to oblige...

In our museum, there is a ball room. It is like a giant marble work, but the balls all end up in a giant thing that then drops them down on the kids when a sensor is triggered. Kids LOVE waiting for the balls to drop. Look through all those kids and you will see that my 3 oldest are all there enjoying the falling balls.

Army looks on and awaits the next ball dropping.

Solace wanted to make sure that sister Kindle was not left out. So, here they are sitting under the ball drop zone...

Ender AKA Mr Tickle (Thank you Brenden for that awesome shirt)!

Excited for the next ball drop.

What a fun day!