Wildlights Part II

During our November trip to see the Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo we were limited on time and only saw the west portion of the exhibit. Owen was not happy to have his visit cut short and we promised him that we would return again before the end of the exhibit. In the blink of an eye, Christmas was over and we only had a few days left to squeeze in the return visit. Although the weather was a bit colder than in November, it was nice to view the exhibit with some snow on the ground.

View of the lights around the frozen pond just inside of the zoo entrance.

Clara all bundled up.

Owen displaying his rapidly developing "funny guy" personality. It is more fun to make a funny face than to smile.

Clara giving Owen a dirty look for being silly in her photo op.

Finally, a normal smile from the boy!

Better Late Than Never

It has taken a week and a half following Santa's visit to restore some sense of order to our house and I finally have a few moments to post. It seems like we just put the tree up yesterday but now it is at the curb waiting to be turned into mulch.

I suspect that this will be the last year that exhaustion will be able to restrain Owen's excitement past 6:30 AM. This year he figured out that if he got up to go potty frequently enough that he would eventually wake Clara up. Next year I suspect that he will try to conspire with Clara to formulate an early wake up strategy. I am about to receive payback for all those years that my brother and I woke up at 4 AM and tried to provide subtle hints to Mom and Dad that it was time to wake up.

Santa has been here. Let the chaos begin!!

Where do I start? This paper is too pretty to rip.

Santa delivered the one toy that Owen really wanted - the Fisher Price Shake n Go XTREME Speedway. Santa was nice to Mom and Dad and used Amazon's frustration free packaging, but had to add a picture since the contents are not visible on the box.

Ready for the inaugural race! Thanks Santa!

Eating breakfast amongst the clutter.

Wildlights

On Thursday night, we visited the Columbus Zoo for their Wildlights members-only preview night. This event grows more popular every year and even the members only night was very crowded. Since it is impossible to see the entire Zoo in one visit with a 3.5 year old and an 18 month old, we will visit several times to see all of the lights. By the time we ate some dinner and Owen finished the second of his trips to the potty, we had just enough time to ride the carousel and look at the lights on our way back to the exit.

Even with image stabilization, it is difficult to capture a photo that is not blurred without a monopod or other stable surface.

Bundled Clara unhappy to be trapped in the stroller.