Our kids get to see their cousins from Portland on a regular basis, but it was a special treat when their cousin from California, Elliott, paid a visit last month.
They arrived at our house to hang out for a while and the kids got a chance to reconnect with Aunt Sue. Gabriel, it turns out, is our most outgoing child and took no time in warming up to her.
They also played on the mini slide we have. We have lots of toys in the living room so Elliott had lots of exploring to do.
The next day, we visited the Zoo. Karina was very excited about getting a map and wanted to chart our course the entire time. She actually has a fairly good sense of direction and is always asking us where we are going, or navigating us to a destination (such as her preschool) if she knows the way there.
Here she is consulting her map.
And here is Eliana putting in her two cents, of course.
We visited the exhibit with a bald eagle. For some reason, they built the eagle a nest on the ground, instead of high up as is normal for these birds. Even more strange, this eagle seemed to be content sitting on the ground.
The kids posed inside a replica of an eagle's nest.
Any animal can be fun to look at… The kids enjoyed looking at the pond full of ducks and other aquatic birds.
This zoo has a great animal petting area and fake horses with saddles the kids can sit on. The petting area was closed but the girls like sitting on the saddle since they read books about ponies and people riding horses.
There was a small aquarium with fish, which was interesting to Elliott.
In the "Lorikeet Landing" exhibit, you can buy little cups of nectar for these birds to drink. Eliana got to feed one of the birds. Karina was too timid to do this but instead held Elvin's hand, which held the cup. But then one of the birds on Elvin's hand peed on Karina's shoe and sock, which made Karina VERY upset and she started crying.
On the way out of the zoo, Eliana helped Elliott stamp his hand.
We ate lunch at a noodle shop where they made hand-pulled noodles. The restaurant is in a house converted to a restaurant and Eliana wondered if the owner lived in the restaurant or not.
Later that day, after naps, Elliott came over again to play with the kids.
The last time that Gabriel saw Elliott was when Gabriel was only 18 months old. So Gabriel really didn't remember his cousin and had no idea who we were talking about when we said that Elliott was paying a visit. This time, however, they got to play together and now whenever Gabriel sees a photograph of Elliot, he'll say "Eh-yee-yet".
The kids all got a treat…popsicles. And they all obediently stayed in the kitchen to finish them off before running back into the living room.
The next day, the kids went to a large indoor play area called Dizzy Castle. It's basically a large warehouse with a large play structure that has areas you can climb, and slides, and ropes. The girls helped show Elliott around a little bit.
It has this area where a projector projects images onto the ground and if you jump on the image, it will make a noise or play music.
There is a pretty steep slide that the kids really enjoy going down on.
They went down the slide over and over and over...
So all the kids had a very full weekend and had fun with each other. We will be visiting Elliott in September in California to hang out some more!
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