Natalie suggested we take the kids to the Bronx Zoo, one of these week days & I'm so glad that we did! Preston went CRAZY over all the animals - he thoroughly enjoyed each & every animal... big & small. Since we always seem to get a late start (with our drive into NY & the kids nap schedules), we only got a chance to see about 1/3, maybe even less of the zoo. That's ok though, it gives us another excuse to get back there... hopefully next time with Garrick, I think Garrick would love to see how much Preston was in full-awe of all the animals - it's cute because as much as Aubree loves animals, she never really seems to have the attention span needed to look at each animal, in the type of admiration Preston does.

I love all this lavender!

This was such a sweet Polar Bear to watch... He was quite entertaining!

These guys were kinda interesting... I completely forgot what they are called.

Some sort of hog critters (they were actually both pretty large!)

This Grizzly was quite active (no... Aubree is NOT standing on the same rock!) hahaha!

Ok... our new summer evening tradition.... Chasing FIREFLIES!!! Well, Garrick calls them "lightening bugs", so I'm not sure what the kids call them (because we have that cute P.D. Eastman Book called "Sam & the Firefly" - which is a favorite of the kids)... anyway, they LOVE it!! It's usually after bath time that we take a look outside & see hundreds!! I hate that they run outside after getting all clean - but, I guess that's what Summer is all about! :) They try to catch them & chase them... getting so close to them and then they light up & you hear Preston just lose it with laughter & Aubree screams with excitement. It's very fun to watch.... This is also my first experience with Fireflies, so I get just as excited!!

(Of course, my camera couldn't pick up very many (if any) of the fireflies going off every second, so it's a bit hard to see, just imagine them ALL around!) :)