In a World Full of Lucky to Be Loved As We Are: Me and You and Zoo boomafoo!

That's the song from Ava's favorite show that stars a cute lemur puppet named Zaboo. Anyway, the 3 of us have had a great couple of days involving animals and fun. We hit the last day of the Utah State Fair yesterday and had a great time. Of course, Mom didn't bring the camera to capture all our fun since it was a last minute idea but a few of the highlights include:

* A pony ride for BOTH girls. Ava was brave and got on her horse without a fit...I was really surprised. She asked for a small one and got the littlest guy there. He was probably smaller than a Great Dane and was named Moose. She was a trooper. Caroline's was named Red. They still remember their ponies' names from last year; Scarecrow and Rusty

* Five super fun rides: The racecars that whipped them around the corners and slammed Ava into Caroline (glad I inadvertantly put Caroline on the outside) and put a huge smile and laugh on Ava's face; the hot air balloons that went up and around and tilted (Mom got to ride on that too); the helicopters that Caroline piloted expertly (with Mom's help); the merry-go-round where Ava insisted on sitting on the bench with Mom, and the train (of course)...Mom got to skip that one.

* As Seen On TV products like the Krustbuster that cuts the crust off sandwiches and make great kid-friendly concoctions and can even put smiley faces on their sandwiches, magical invisible and erasable markers for the girls where I can write secret messages to them, and tops for aluminum can drinks that hold the carbonation in for four days and have screw tops and little drink holes for the kids. I'm such a sucker for stuff that will make life fun for the girls (and me).

* Vanilla ice cream and orange dreamsicle treats.

* Petting a billy goat

* Great and scary people watching that makes you feel so good about yourself even on your worst day. (Ladybugs, education is a good thing!)

And today we hit Hogle Zoo. It was a beautiful Fall day and perfect for the zoo since the animals were so much more active. Plus, we got to see all the new babies born in the last few months, notably the cute baby elephant, giraffe, snow leopard and the three baby tiger cubs. Thank you Heather and Mimi for the great gift of the zoo membership. We can go anytime we want and not feel guilty for staying only an hour or so!