Category: Summer 2018

Welcome Back!

Jack and I went on another adventure last week. This adventure took us 30 minutes south to The Blank Park Zoo! It was a nice cool day and the animals were out and about!

We started out watching the Red Panda.

We worked our way through the birds and the Australian animals and then we found the goats and llamas. We were in love! We spent the next half hour with llamas and goats!

Look at those eyes!

This little guy was my favorite! He was taking a nap, with a smile on his face! Who doesn’t smile during nap time!!

Dolly, the llama, (get it) hung out with Jack!

She then lowered herself so they could have a conversation.

I think she might have gone in for a little smooch!

We finally left the llamas and goats and went on to see..

otters

tortisees

lemers

giraffes

an ostrich

A peacock

Jack balanced a penguin on his finger!

and crowd favorites…

turkey vultures

and cockroaches!

I must say the zoo is a great day adventure…we spent over 4 hours there! It’s been updated the past few years and very family friendly. I would definitely recommend it for all ages!

Welcome Back!

Jack and I went on another adventure. This time we did GeoCaching!

GeoCaching is an outdoor activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, at specific locations marked by coordinates. That’s the “official” definition.

What jack did was upload the Geo Caching app, which shows all the hidden caches in our town. The greens represent a geo-cache and yellow smiley faces are the caches we have found!

We easily located our first Cache! It was a small cache (cash) that contained a few trinkets and a log book to sign with your geo-cache name. Jack and I were instantly hooked (doesn’t take much!)

After a few geo-fails, ones we couldn’t locate due to not being kept up or others ruin them, we came across a large Cache. So exciting and easy to find because it was large!

While trying to find the next cache on a trail, Jack spotted a deer walking along the trail! Wonder if she was Geo-Caching!  After two hours and an incoming storm, we called it quits and decided we would hunt another day.

On this afternoon when we headed out and it was HOT! BIG mistake! Heat makes me tired and cranky. Not a good mix when you have to have some patients when looking for hidden trinkets.  AND, we couldn’t find any caches which quickly becomes frustrating.

About an hour later, Jack finally found a micro-cache. It was located near a development sign with the clue “S marks the spot.” I looked and looked and finally started to head back to the car when Jack yelled, “I found it! It’s above the “S” in the sign!” Yea…that little blue spot is the cache.

The only item in the cache was a folded up piece of paper to sign. It was that small.

Needless to say, Jack signed the paper, we got into the air conditioning car and headed home. Geo-Caching is not for hot humid days due to the amount of walking you end up doing, but if it’s a cooler day, I would highly recommend going on a Geo-cache hunt!

Hello!

For Jack’s next adventure, we did not have to head very far…just to the backyard! It was a rare summer night: cool and NOT raining, so Jason and Jack decided top to put up the tent and camp under the stars (with the supervision of Charlie.)

It’s a good thing that they practiced putting on the rain cover. Jack woke up in the night thinking, “Is that rain on my face?”

At dusk everyone headed out to set up for the evening/night.
Can you spot Jack loving up Charlie?

A friend lent us her cots which worked extremely well for the night!
Nice and comfy!! (Thanks J!)

Jason brought out the TV so they could watch a movie under the stars. It worked out nicely…Charlie even enjoyed the movie before heading to bed.

Charlie and I headed to bed (inside) shortly after the movie started. I thought for sure I would hear the boys come inside during the night, but no one showed up inside until 8:30 the next morning!

Jack loved it and said he slept soooo well! He also learned that you don’t need to go somewhere to have an adventure!

Next week…Jack and I searched high and low during this outing!

Hello!

This summer Jack and I have decided to do an “outing” to a local/Iowa destination that we have not been to before or have not been to for a long time. Can you guess where we went last week?

Does this help?

Well, this will give it away!

If you still haven’t guessed, Jack and I headed to the Botanical Gardens in DesMoines! Jack was in charge of picking the place, the tour (using the map) and taking some pictures!

When we first started our tour, we were taken by the SIZE of the plants and leaves. They were crazy HUGE!!

While walking around, Jack and I felt like miniature people walking through a jungle. It was amazing!! Even this shovel was larger than us!

We headed to the outside gardens to check out these trees. Jack took this picture…love the view he decided to take of it!

This is the same tree!

What? We were actually looking at the Bonsai trees! Jack loved how the trees looked like full grown trees, just miniature versions. There was one that was over a 100 years old!

We continued our outside walk, finding a wonderful waterfall. It was so nice and cool underneath it and very loud!! We sat there for some time.

There was an area for home ideas and we decided that this little nook would be awesome to have in our yard.

After the Botanical Center, we walked down to the Robert Ray Asian Gardens. Jack was amazed by the building and statues around this fun little area.

Jack found his “sign”, the rooster, at the zodiac walk.

I am always amazed to find a rock that is heart shaped. Start looking…they are everywhere! Yes, I know this one was probably “made” this way.

Since we were downtown, a trip to the t-shirt shop Raygun and Mars Cafe for Thelma’s ice cream, was on the menu!

Our first fun outing for the summer was a success! We don’t put a “time-limit” on our trips..some have been an hour, some have been all night (hmmmm…) Stop back next week to see what Jack planned as his next adventure!

PS…Sam is always invited, but this is the summer of football, working and of course, friends!! 🙂