Everything is more fun with Dad

Rich ended his 5+ years of employment on August 31 and didn't start his new employment until September 7th... so we had a week to play with him!  Everything is always more fun with Rich around.

It was still really hot so Rich pulled out the slip 'n slide (that I got for about $3 a few summers back!)  This is the first year that the boys have really understood how it works.  James loved being out there and couldn't wait for William to come home from school everyday to play with him.

Friday was a school holiday so we used a free zoo pass that was about to expire and took a family trip to the zoo.  It was perfect weather for the zoo and we had a blast!  We showed Rich around the children's zoo.  Alex loved the little goats!

The black bears loved the attention they got and kept coming up to the window.

The tiger was also content to sit where we could see him.  Once when we visited the zoo the tiger kept roaring at William.  Now everytime we go he tries to get the tigers to roar by roaring himself.

Rich actually had to stop by work in the afternoon... so he hung out with us until lunchtime.  After lunch we went to visit the gorillas.  The boys were enthralled because two of the gorillas kept fighting each other.... and then the orangatan was showing off pretty hard.

We also stopped by the new butterfly exhibit.  The boys loved seeing the different types of butterflies fluttering around.

When Rich got home that day we decided to take the boys to eat.  We've never taken all three to eat and didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.  Actually, we thought it might end in disaster.  Surprisingly though the boys did extremely well!  It was quite an unexpected surprise.

We are so glad that we got a chance to play with Rich before his new job began... and especially grateful for his new employment.