~ DAY-CATIONS WITH DADDY ~

Mia's daddy has been on vacation and, boy have we been having fun! We planned out places we wanted to go and things we wanted to see beforehand, and it's really worked out nicely. Everything we are doing is really closeby too, and it gives us a chance to do things we haven't done in a while...or haven't done at all!


One of our "day-cations" was to the Central Park Zoo with our buddies, the "C" family! It was a first for all of us and we got a hot, muggy & beautiful day!:

The kids are looking at the penguins, my camera could not get a decent photo because

of the glare. This was one of our favorites ~ the penguins swan right up to the glass and

looked us all over ~ they were adorable! We couldn't figure out who was on display...

where we checking them out OR where they checking out the human display :)

Mia has gotten so very attached to daddy, since he's been home so much.

It has been so sweet watching them spend these days together;

he keeps saying, "she has some personality!!"

Red Panda!!

Ant & Mia watching the polar bear ~

Watching "Mr. Bear" was another favorite ~

"he" was so interesting to watch ~

He was huge & so pretty, but I always think the animals are so sad

to be out of their "element" and on display...

The sea lions always remind us of Penny,

they have that guilty, yet adorable expression!

This was in the "Tisch Childrens Zoo" - part:

After the zoo, we walked through Central Park and found this play area

with water sprays: I even ran in to cool off (nope, no photo of that! )

We left the city and stopped at a favorite place for dinner; P*F Chang's ~ yummy! Mia devoured her noodles, double fisted as is her normal routine :) Afterwards, the kids spotted these mall-rides; and I think they like it here better than the zoo!!!

Another fun adventure was:
CAMPING...

in the "comfort" of our own backyard!
Daddy made a beautiful fire and we popped j*ffy pop popcorn,

remember that?! The kids loved to watch it pop!it was really good too!

(notice the baby in "E" arms, he was pretending he had just been to Taiwan

and came back with a baby; of course, her name was Paige :)

Ant got to use his new telescope for the first time ~

(thanks U.Roy & Anne!), it wasn't the clearest night; but it was fun!
After I put Mia to bed, ( Mia & Mommy slept inside not out with the boys!)

daddy and the boys went for a night swim...

Then, I left the boys sitting around the fire to dry off, while I watched

"Confessions of a shopaholic" ~ love it!

The next morning, I found daddy and the boys back at the fire pit...relaxing. They looked a bit tired, they didn't sleep very well ~ it was a bit uncomfortable. The boys were very hungry, so daddy cooked over the fire pit flame and whipped up a yummy breakfast:

"Cheers"

I know this is something the boys will remember forever;

I can just hear them years from now,

"remember the time dad camped out back with us..."

Our day-cations continue all this week! We have some more fun things in store...