Jennifer's 365 Project

 The little one was so excited for a Happy Potter themed at the zoo today!
 They had so many cool decorations throughout the zoo.
And fun stations set up to explore different things. The nice thing is a lot of this works for Halloween as well.

In the morning we spent some time at the zoo. They have a nice new area where you can pet a tortise or two, which Quinn was interested in.
Later in the afternoon we assembled Quinn's first computer - a Kano computer. This was very easy and he assembled it almost completely by himself.
The color-coded cables really went a long way to help instruct what performed what function. 
When we were up and running Quinn started to play a few games. He had his first introduction to a trackpad, which, for someone who has always used touchscreens, is certainly a new experience.

It's May the Fourth, which is a Star Wars day. And It's is Free Comic Book Day! We snagged a few comics from Quinn at a local comic book store called The Comic Signal, who does a really nice job.

In the afternoon we headed over to John Ball Zoo for some Star Wars themed fun!
It was sunny and finally warmer so a lot of people were out and about. It was a great day for a zoo visit.

Today is opening day at the local zoo! There's still snow on the ground, but it's sunny out so we ventured out to see some animals.
A lot of the days have been bitter cold, so it's nice the temperatures are finally climbing. Quinn had a great time running all over. 
Even the petting area animals were around, though inside the barn.

It's another chilly day but we decided to go out and enjoy some Halloween-themed stuff at John Ball Zoo.
 We ran into a co-worker of mine and they're adorable little girl.
 And stopped to see lots of animals.
As well as the decorations. The most important part were all the candy stations, and we managed to hit all of them.

We decided to do an early trip to the zoo today. Our timing was fantastic. It wasn't too hot or cold and it was early enough that the zoo wasn't busy and the animals were fairly active.
 The otters were super playful and fun to watch.
As usual, the little one had a great time running around. The zoo is small enough that we don't typically bring a stroller any more. For those times when he does get too tired to walk Chris and I trade off carrying him. That's a lot less stressful than arguing with him while he tries to drive a stroller into every barricade or person he comes across.

This is the first time Quinn has licked an ice cream cone. A much different experience than using a spoon and was a little confusing at first.

The weather is beautiful and the zoo is open for the season! Not everyone is out at the zoo, since it's still a little chilly, but there were plenty of other kids around for Quinn to play with.

Plus, they had a rare Ninja Turtle on display.
He spent most of the time bouncing from play area to play area and didn't care too much about the animal exhibits. That is probably normal for a two year old, but I was still a little sad he wasn't more interested in the animals. Next time!

It's a beautiful day and probably one of the last ones for the season. We headed out to the Zoo to enjoy the outdoors and have some fun.

We headed out to the John Ball Zoo this afternoon and finally tried the funicular. It was ok but not as scenic as I was hoping for.
It also scared Quinn a little. he was nervous about standing and moving in a train car.

 A co-worker of mine also met us there with his little 11 month old son. It was great weather and we were in and out before the storms hit.
In the afternoon Adam and Comfort came over to join us. Then the storms hit and some tornadoes touched down not to far from us. One was just a few miles from our house and both we and Adam and Comfort lucked out that neither of our houses sustained any damage.

The weather has been fantastic this weekend - the perfect weather to try out the zoo with Quinn. They open at 9am and we are always up by then.

We arrived there a little after 9:30 and that was perfect timing. The zoo wasn't too busy and it wasn't too hot.
He wasn't afraid of the aquarium at all, which was great news. The fish at cabelas have freaked him out every time we've visited there, so we were a little nervous.
All the animals were new to him, and probably very strange.
He was a pretty good sport about everything, although he wouldn't touch any of the animals in the barn area.
Because we were at the zoo so early there were hardly any people indoors, which meant Quinn could push his stroller as much as he wanted.
We did the whole zoo which took about 2 hours and Quinn was good the whole time. When we passed the last exhibit he started to zone out a little and fell asleep in the car a few minutes later.

After a 2 hour nap, he was refreshed and ready to run around again.

Saturday my parents a little brother came over to visit.  It was raining in the morning but by the time they arrived to Grand Rapids from metro Detroit it was sunny and hot.

Originally Chris and I were going to ride bikes after I got out of class.  When he mentioned it, all I could mutter was "it's too cold." A part of me wanted nothing more than to play another block of Dragon Age for hours and start working on side quests.  But, I knew I needed to get my butt out and about doing something besides video games all afternoon again.

So I suggested John Ball Zoo, and that is exactly where we went. And yes, I realize that if it was too cold to bike it should be too cold to walk around outside.

In the off season (which is until May) the Zoo has several sections closed off - so it's smaller than normal.  We arrived around 2pm and were done around 4pm (in the off season the zoo is only open 10am-4pm).

Despite there being some closed exhibits and sectioned off areas, there was still plenty to see, including the animals you see to the left here.



For a full catalog of the photos I uploaded, you can find them here. And here's a shot Chris took of me in the aquarium.

Also, here's a video compilation by Chris.