Thursday, May 9, 2013

Hanks in Town, Part 3: Zoo Trip and Goodbyes

On March 21st, we decided to brave the cold once again and pay a visit to Brookfield Zoo!


Thanks to our year pass that we got from Grandma for Christmas, we were all able to get in for FREE and park for free as well!!! (Which is a pretty big deal since it would have cost us a fortune otherwise!)


Once inside we didn't waste any time getting over to see the Dolphin show! It was so much fun seeing the show again and even more fun to see Lily and Brooklyn react to it. Lily was giggling the whole time and is now in LOVE with dolphins!


After the show Grandpa Hanks even took all the girls over to a little machine that made plastic dolphins right before their eyes. They all got to take home their dolphins and have treasured them ever since.


On our way over to see the baby giraffe, Brooklyn decided to channel her inner Kevin and scale some rocks. She was pretty proud of herself when she reached the top, but disappointed that mommy wouldn't let her climb up the very last boulder.


It was nice and warm inside the giraffe house and the little baby was as cute as ever! The giraffes  are always a zoo favorite when we bring people to visit.


The next day all our visitors packed up and said goodbye :( It was hard to see them go but we were so grateful for the chance to see them and to get to know our little niece Audrey better.


It was also neat to see the blossoming friendship between Lily and Audrey (who are only a few weeks apart in age). They both played so well together and we were grateful for the quiet moments when they would just sneak off to play iPhone games together :)


And it was pretty funny when Audrey and Lily bathed together. Unlike the first time they bathed together, there was a whole lot of mermaid action going on and a noticeable absence of eye-popping-shock!


When the Hanks Gang exited our home on Friday, they left bearing gifts to distract the little ones from crying too much. It worked on Brooklyn who was madly in love with the Hello Kitty sleep mask that Auntie Janna left with her, but poor little Lily just sat on the couch, holding her presents in tears. Its tough being three.

Anyway, we had soooo much fun with the Hanks family and are very grateful to live in a hub where we also get to have lots of surprise visitors who are on business! Thank you everyone for the sacrifices you made to get out here and for sharing such fun memories with our little Chicago family :) We love you all!

2 comments:

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Beccarigg said...

Love the picture of Lily and Audrey with their clover cheeks. Lily's face is just so cute! I can imagine her sitting on the couch in tears after everyone left. That's pretty much what I did after our family left too :)