September-the Zoo!

September has been so lovely.

Asside from the stress of being unemployed,

being home with my boys is the best job,

and the most fun that I have ever had.

We went to the big zoo about an hour south of us.

Where they have three dolphins.

Beautiful, smart dolphins who come to the glass to say hello.

We got to touch the sharks!!

We got to touch the sting rays!!

We walked through shark jaws...

and checked out very realistic tide pools, that even had real waves splashing through them. We laughed out loud when Brayden scrambled away from the tide pools as fast as he could. We forgot big waves are scary.

Then we got to watch a little dolphin show.

We loved it!

I took Brayden up to the glass before the show and one of the dolphins came to the wall and gave us a little splash. Then she laughed and enjoyed herself.

Jack loved the goats!

And apparently this goat loved Jack.

They are totally communing!

Jeremiah loved the Wells Fargo Barn.

And Brayden loved the tractor of course!

These prairie dogs reminded me of Montana.

We used to live by a park full of them.

And sometimes we would take Grizzly to the prairie dog colony and he would go crazy chasing them. And we would laugh at their barking, hiding, teasing antics.

We saw a leopard,

Some very sleepy bears,

and another Montana freind, a mountain lion.

In other news...

Jack Jack started walking...at 9 months old.

We were all home to see it!

He took a few steps. We video taped it.

And then we didn't encourage it anymore!

Brothers! These guys do everything together. Jack ADORES his big brother. To him, there is nothing better in the world. When Brayden has a time out in his bedroom, Jack crawls along behind him, surrendering to voluntary time out in solidarity. Then he doesn't understand when I drag away from his brother's closed door. Brayden is pretty happy with his little brother too. He kisses him goodnight before bed and invites him into all kinds of brotherly trouble. "Yack-Yack" or "Yackie" is what he calls him on a regular basis. When I am making dinner, Brayden will stand behind Jack's chair and pop out on either side and yell "surprise!" just to hear Jack shriek with delight and laugh and clap his little hands (another new skill!)

We've (Brayden and I...he's very good at washing and de-stemming) also been busy turning all of our tomatoes into 19 jars of spaghetti sauce, sun dried tomatoes and 8 pints of tomato soup (and 12 cups of diced tomatoes in the freezer).

Anyone want to come over for dinner?

You can bet something tomato-y is on the menu......