If I Ran the Zoo

Big shout out to Dr. Seuss for lending me the title of my post today. 

Have I mentioned that I love our little zoo here in Chattanooga. Let me tell you why I love it so much. It cost $55 for a family membership! And, since they are part of the Reciprocal Zoo program, we have a huge list of other zoos across the country where we can use our membership card to get in for free or at a discounted rate.

Well, Lowery Park Zoo in Tampa is one of the ones that we get into for free. Do you know that it is $19.95 per adult to get into that place?! So for Jeff, Vickie, and me it would have cost us over $60 with tax figured in to spend a day there. That's more than we paid for our Chattanooga membership and we can go as often as we like:-)

The manatees have always been  my favorite thing at Lowery Park. It just makes it feel so much like Florida to have manatees in the zoo. They are actually an official manatee "hospital." The take care of injured ones. I have no idea if it's a rehab where they release them again later, or if they just keep them on indefinitely. 

 

By far, this was the oddest thing we saw at the zoo that day. Living in Georgia these past 13 years, I have seen an abundance of skunks; more than I have ever wanted to see in my life and I just can not imagine what makes them zoo-worthy!

Some of the other sightings that day: 

A camel

The giraffes

The elephants

The zebras

The Flamingos

The monkeys, er, I mean, my son. . .

The blog of a million pictures

As promised, here are some photos of Jude's first vacation. This was his first time to meet his grandparents Franceschini, and Aunt Vickie, as well as many other family members.

As you can see, Jude is jazzed about this trip.














And, here we have him about 5 minutes down the road:-)














Oh, and some things never change, even on road trips (notice that his sock is coming off).














Jude's first stay at a hotel. We thought it best not to push it and drive all 9 hours at the beginning of the vacation. Little did we know then that on the way back he would sleep all but maybe 2 or 3 hours of the drive. Could have saved that $80.




























Jude is so happy to be spending the week at Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's house since they come and spend weekends at his house some times.














Hanging out with Aunt Vickie














Grandma has the magic touch!














Grandma and Grandpa and Jude. If grandpa did not have on his glasses, you would see that they have the same scowl. It is the one that Jude is wearing in this photo.














Jude took surprisingly good naps while on vacation, which is weird because he won't sleep on flat surfaces at home. Guess the kid knows what vacation is for.



















Napping in the swing borrowed from cousin Christie














Hanging out with Daddy














Ready for the Strawberry Festival














Just a fun fact:














Daddy being silly with his strawberry short cake














Aunt Vickie marching with her twirl group in the Strawberry Festival Parade














Just a fun family photo of the original Florida Franceschini family circa 1970s. Pictured from left to right: Jude's Great Aunt Joanne, Jude's Great Uncle Chris, Jude's Great Uncle Chuck, Jude's Grandpa Fred, in front: Jude's Great Grandma Joanne, and Jude's Great Grandpa Fred.














Jude wants to thank you for looking at his photos:-)

Vacation, mile stones, and MHR

Didn't get to say why my husband rocks this week because I was on vacation visiting my family in Florida. First, he rocks for taking us to Florida. He had to swap shifts with another guy, which means in the near future he will be working a 48 hour shift.

He also rocks for driving us home in a snow storm yesterday that stretched all the way from the state line to just south of Atlanta. I had a migraine, so when Jude did not need my attention, I slept most of the trip.

I'll post vacation pictures in the near future, but for right now, let me tell you about Jude's mile stone. I knew it was coming because he seemed to be trying to do it the whole time we were on vacation. This morning, I put him down for tummy time, and after about three seconds, he rolled over onto his back. Yipee! But no more naps on the couch!