Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium

The first week of January while still on Christmas break we went to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium with my Angel and her two kids Natalie and Dillon. It was a cold and windy morning. We all wished we had brought thicker jackets, but by the afternoon things warmed up a bit.

You could pet stingrays.

The petting zoo was fun. They had goats and deer.

 

The goats were very aggressive since you could feed them.

Brooke trying to get away from a goat.

The deer

A baby white tiger

eel

The crocodiles

Brielle on the carousel

Brooke and Natalie

Brielle

Tate was great and hung out in his stroller the whole time.

Natalie, Dillon, Brooke, and Brielle with the camel.

Feeding the giraffe

Feeding the wallaby kangaroos

Brooke loves the zoo and says she wants to be a zoo keeper when she grows up, or work at McDonalds.

 

It was fun to hang out with Angel and her kids again. We used to hang out weekly but then the kids went to school and life changed. We still get together, just not as often.

More Tate

I loved this hat.

The girls can't get enough of him.

Brooke's 5 now!

We went to Amazing Jakes for Brooke's fifth birthday. She brought Morgan Dayley and Porter Dayley. (Porter is one of the boys she is going to marry some day. Don't say anything if you see her she would kill me if she knew I wrote this. Luckily she can't read yet and I'm thinking that by the time she can read she won't care anymore.)

 

Brielle, Morgan, Porter, some random boy, Brooke

The bumper cars

Ashley, Casey, Grandma, and Bruce all showed up at about the time we were going to do cake and open presents.

Brielle helping with the ribbon

Bruce helping with the ribbon

Brooke loves this camera. She's taken about 1000 pictures with it. Anytime we go somewhere like the zoo she brings it and takes pictures of the animals and anything else that catches her eye.

Brooke, Brielle Porter, Morgan

Brooke is really growing up now. She is such a dynamic girl with a lot of personality. I think she could take on the world when she is grown. She loves playing with dollies, ponies, polly pockets, barbies, or anything she can get her hands on. She once made a bunch of stick friends (popsicle sticks that she drew faces on) and played with those. She enjoys making up songs, loves drawing, and being read too. She is quickly learning how to read even though she is not yet in Kindergarten. She is very bright and tries hard to keep pace with her older sister. She loves organizing and suprising me by cleaning without being asked. Today she was so excited to help me dust the house. She's internally motivated and is never bothered by challenges. She can still throw a mean temper tantrum but she's really starting to learn control. She loves being helpful and making Tate smile and laugh. She just started taking piano with me and is very proud of learning Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Her preschool teacher says that she is very good in class and she often has her help the other kids with their work. We all love Brooke. She adds so much excitement and joy to our family.

Christmas Day

First thing Christmas morning

They're good to pose for a picture before opening presents.

Some of Brooke's presents



 The big present was an Xbox Kinect. Brielle got Just Dance 4 and Brooke got the Disneyland game.

Ashley and Brielle playing Just Dance 4

Casey Jones watching.

Grandma and Tate

Tate in his Christmas pajamas. I got Tate a ball rattle, Grandma got him a puppy car and a toy remote, Papa and Marie got him a moustache pacifier and a weight rattle.

My mom, Bruce, Ashley, and Casey came over in the morning. I think we had breakfast burritos. Then my dad, Marie, Leah, and Emily came over in the later afternoon. It was a fun day. The kids loved the Kinect and I think it's pretty neat too. It took the girls a little while to get used to it but now they can use it with ease.