Memorable Monday

Bella enjoying her first Chicken Wings! We've taken her to BW3 many times before, but she's never shown interest in eating wings before. This time though, she devoured a couple that Trish shared with her. A great time!

Memorable Monday (Tuesday edition)

We have a game at our house that we love playing with Bella called "whose girl are you?" It's a little verbal tug-of-war between Trish and I to see who Bella will answer at any given moment. Her answers range between "Daddy's girl" and "Mommy's girl." Last night, trying to forever win the game, I employed a little bribery in the form of Hershey's chocolate syrup. And it worked! Every answer was "Daddy's girl!"

Then, on the way to the kitchen, Trish asked her whose girl she was again. Not missing a beat, she looks over her shoulder and says "Imma tell you after chocolate."

Smart girl.

She's her own girl, that's for sure...

We've told anyone and everyone who will listen, but we love having Bella at Sunnyside, up at KU. They're always doing fun art projects and things to either decorate the halls at school with or to bring home. Well, the other day they had been, apparently, asking the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. We saw the standard answers, "pro basketball player," "princess, " etc. Bella? Well, this was her answer...

Memorable Monday

Graham crackers is serious business!!!

Welcome to our new friend Asher!!!

We have a new friend to introduce, Baby Asher!!! Asher, whom you can see featured on his Mother's blog The Incredible Shenanigans of Boys Named Grey and Asher, is the second son of our friends Jeff and Kendall. He is ADORABLE and we've been so lucky to hang out with him twice now and look forward to many more play dates and parties. Before School started Kendall was still on maternity leave so we spent the morning meeting Asher and relaxing with Kendall. Bella was a big fan of Baby Asher, and all of Grey's toys that kept her occupied while I caught up on some much needed girlfriend time. Bella was even such a big girl that she held him all by herself, and I got rockstar pictures! Thanks for letting us come meet him and play Kendall, you and Jeff have such wonderful and handsome boys!

Colorado Vacation Part IV: The North Pole

Our final day on vacation was as awesome and action packed as the rest. On Monday morning we took to the road and drove up into the Mountains. To begin our adventures we stopped in Green Mountain Falls to eat at The Pantry, a great restaurant that has special meaning to Eric, and has amazing homemade cinnamon raisin bread.

Green Mountain Falls also has a beautiful park area near The Pantry where we took bread to feed the ducks. However, the Geese were more interested in our bread than the ducks, or more demanding at least. It didn't matter to Bella though, she LOVED feeding the animals.

After our wonderful breakfast and park visit we made our way to the coolest park for kids ages 2-10 at least called The North Pole. It's an awesome theme park centered around Christmas that runs all year round. The rides are perfect since most are for kids 36"and taller and if they are not tall enough they can ride with an adult. Bella totally picked up the roller coaster/rides gene from me and my Dad because she LOVES it. As soon as we got off one she wanted to go again or ride another. Here she is on her first ride. She rode it once and then her cousins met up with us and she and Gabe rode again.

Gabe was also a huge fan of the rides, I see many theme parks in their future!


















Paulie Bear had a great time too although he couldn't ride most of the rides yet. He'll be up there soon enough and then they'll be no stopping the Neuteboom/Wells kids!

One of the best rides were the cars, it was so cute to see all the kids driving, even Paul loved being at the wheel with the wind in his hair!

They had face painting as well and we couldn't resist. Gabe and Bella both LOVED getting their faces painted,

I must admit, I enjoyed it too!

Overall it was a wicked fun time, We all loved the park and were totally worn out afterwards. We had a nice relaxing evening packing and resting and then set out for KS bright and early Tuesday. It was an action packed vacation but a perfect end on an amazing Summer.

Memorable Monday

Colorado Vacation Part III: The Zoo!

On Sunday we went to what I now think is the world's coolest Zoo. It's called the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and it's located ON the Mountain in Colorado Springs, CO. It was also another event we got to enjoy with Bella's awesome cousins Gabe and Paul and of course all of my fantastic In-Laws!

So what makes this Zoo so cool?? First off, you are literally hiking the Mountain to see the animals, so on one side is Mountain and the other is an incredible view of Colorado Springs. Plus the first thing you can do upon entering is feed the Giraffes! And it's true, the have REALLY long tongues. Usually they get crackers but a sign told us that they were essentially on a diet and we were able to purchase and feed them lettuce. If you ask Bella she'll tell you "We fed the Giraffes Salad, but they wanted crackers." They didn't really seem to mind the lettuce.






















































Eric and I have always been fans of sight seeing at Zoo's it was so fun to watch Bella really enjoy seeing all the animals. It was wonderful family time!









































The Meerkat's weren't nearly as impressed by my impression of them as my family was. I think it's pretty spot on.













And then we reached my favorite part! All the animals were fun to see of course, the snow leopard was very active, The monkeys were all taking a nap and they even had a porcupine which I have never seen up close. However, the best exhibit was the Budgie Buddies. It was an amazing aviary where hundreds of little birds flew around, visitors could walk inside purchase a Popsicle stick with honey and birdseed on it and feed the birds. They literally landed on your Shoulder!! One bird REALLY liked J.P. I was thrilled, and so was Bella!







































































Bella and Gabe had some great cousin bonding too! They played on the rocks and even shared ice cream.




























They even had all sorts of animals out and about for visitors to touch and learn about. Bella and I touched a snake!!!!! This led to Bella and Gabe's souvenirs, huge 3+ feet long snakes. Bella's is pink with green hearts all over it. She named it Sparky after the snake that lives under my Mother in Law's gutter drainy thing. ( Much to Connie's displeasure, the snake, not the souvenir). Sparky is even now lounging on our couch.


























Overall it was an excellent trip, I can't wait to make many more trips to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo! 5 stars from the Neutebooms.