Fall Break?

So, this week Justin had a couple of days off of school - better termed as their "fall break". However, we were trying so hard to pack in the fun that we're all pretty tired from our "break." But, we did have a great week! Here is cute Ian during his first trip to the zoo. We had a great time at the Como Zoo for one of our church's playgroup activities.
The Zoo had a lot of storybook pictures set up for Halloween and Rachel was thrilled to see the Alice in Wonderland pictures. Here she is with the White Rabbit.
This is Rachel with her cute friend Stanley. We were totally breaking the rules by letting them sit on these, but we didn't see the sign until after they were already up - we promise!
Here's some of the kids checking out our favorite sea lion.
Ian has the best laugh ever and one of his favorite things is playing "super Ian". We just raise him up and down and he squeals and laughs so hard. It is pretty much one of the cutest things ever!

Here's his expression while being "super Ian." (Yes, a hazard for the parents in this game is the occasional drool in the face, but it's well worth this small price!).
Every once in a while Bridget has a very proud parenting moment and this was definitely one of those times! She left the room for a couple of minutes to get some stuff done and when she came back Rachel was reading to Ian. It was so cute and he was really listening to her and watching what she was doing. She is such a sweet big sister!
Part of the fall break festivities was a trip to the Children's Museum. For a little while they have two special exhibits up, so our first trip was to visit Sesame Street. Here's the fam in Big Bird's nest.
The next visiting exhibit was Curious George. He is definitely one of Rachel's favorite characters and she had a great time playing with all of the cute science projects.
Here is our little turtle. However, she only moves at the speed of a turtle when we're making her eat something she doesn't want to or when we're trying to get out of the door to go somewhere. Otherwise, she's more like a cheetah.

The next day we took a trip to the Minnesota Zoo. This zoo is pretty incredible and has a ton of walks (both indoor and outdoor), so there was a lot to see. The brand-new Minnesota Trail features wildlife from our region and we really enjoyed seeing it for the first time. Here's Rachel on the wolf. She insisted that it was a coyote (we'd see one earlier in the trail) and she really liked the sharp teeth.

We loved visiting the farm part of the zoo and Rachel petted and fed all the animals that she could.

Saving the best for last - how cute are these two? Ian's personality is really blossoming and he's so much fun lately (even while we think he's cutting his first teeth, so he has really been a champ!)