Animals, Swamps, and Mud Puddles

Shortly after we got to Baton Rouge, we found tickets to the zoo in our mail. For a couple of days we had no idea where they came from, but they turned out to be from Andrew's brother's family. (Thanks y'all!) We packed food the night before, got up early to beat the heat, and headed out in a thunderstorm. Yup, a thunderstorm. We couldn't get ourselves to cancel our plans because the same thing happened the last Friday Andrew had off, and it didn't even end up raining. Driving to the zoo got a little scary because it was raining so hard, but we made it and were one of 4 cars waiting in the parking lot to see if the rain would stop. Eventually it slowed down enough that we figured we'd try it (two of the other cars had left). We bought some gift shop ponchos and headed in as the ONLY people in the zoo.

Waiting out the storm

We honestly couldn't have planned better. It didn't rain anymore the rest of the day, but it was SO much cooler than it would have been without the morning rain. Some of our favorite exhibits were the monkeys, giraffes (they were being naughty), and the petting zoo. We also had an interesting time with the parrots, and I got yelled at by one of them. Sadly, as soon as we started taking pictures, we realized the camera battery was running low. So there aren't too many, but here's what we got.

Watching the monkeys-they really put on a show for us

The next day we went to Bass Pro Shops. According to the license plates, Louisiana is the "Sportsman's Paradise" and we want to fit in with the locals. Adaline loved watching all the live fish, giant turtle, and raccoon along with all the stuffed animals strewn about. Just before we left, they were starting a kids' activity, mostly with stuff that Adaline is too young to enjoy, but she did get to ride on the carousel with daddy.

"Enough already, I'm just sitting on a moose."

This past weekend Andrew wasn't feeling well, so we wanted to do something short and close. We live right down the road from the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center, so we decided to check it out. The best part was that was a "bring your dog to the swamp" day and Adaline was going nuts seeing all off the dogs. We don't have any pictures from our walk through the swamp because as soon as we got far enough that we didn't want to turn around, we got attacked by mosquitoes. We were constantly swatting them off of each other and didn't even have time to look around at anything we were passing. Luckily, there was still the visitor's center to explore. We looked at all their snakes, turtles, and some fish before calling it a day.

When we first got there, we noticed a couple turtles in one of the ponds. After about 10 seconds, there were around 15 turtles that had come right up to us. Apparently this is a popular lunch spot for school groups and so they've come to expect free food.

We call her the snake charmer now.

So excited and so scared.

She pushes the stroller more than she rides in it.

A few pictures of the random happenings in between our excursions:

When I ask her to smile, this is what I get...what a ham

Playing in the mud, all day every day.

Hey little squirrel buddy, let's be friends

Noooo, come back

First pigtails 6/12/14

She really likes to wear my shorts. (People around here think that these are pants and that they are appropriate for all sorts of outings, maybe they're a bad influence on Adaline.)

Trying more new hair stlyes

It's just adorable to me how her entire ponytail curls under so perfectly.

Adaline has started refusing my help during meal times. She gets fed, but breakfast, especially, can be pretty messy.

She played in a mud puddle for at least 30 minutes. Apparently someone couldn't see me watching her and told the people in the front office that there was an infant playing in the flower bed. Two women came running out to check out the situation only to find me watching her from around the corner. I'm glad people are concerned for her, but this is the second time something similar has happened in only 2 days!

The mud puddle was probably the highlight of her week.