Hot morning at the zoo!

Last weekend, Dan and Ben and I drove to Wichita to stay a few days at my parents' house.  I love being just a short 3-hour drive from them!  But we can't get too used to it, since we're only here for a year before we move to one of the coasts (or beyond).

On Monday, my mom had to work so Layne and I took the boys to the zoo.  The temperature was supposed to reach 105 that day which means that we got there right at opening time and only stayed a couple of hours.  Luckily, the boys were very interested in the snake/lizard building (air conditioned!) and the rain forest (more humid than outside, but not as hot).  We had a great time and Layne did a fantastic job taking pictures so I didn't have to for once!

He insisted on jumping off every. single. bench.

Helping "paint" the barn. 

"Mommy, what are they DOING?"

Seriously, this kid acts like it's torture to take a picture with me.

Dan's favorite part of the zoo: the bridges.

Kansas City Zoo

Despite the scorching heat, we headed to the KC Zoo this morning.  The boys had a great time and we bought a membership so we can head back there whenever we want!  We got there around 9:00 and stayed for just over 2 hours, but it was still probably approaching 100 degrees by the time we left.  One good thing about the hot weather--hardly anyone else was there!  No lines at all for the train or the tram or the carousel and it felt like we had the place to ourselves.  

Check out Dan's exquisite bed-head in the first few pictures (until he gets sweaty and his hair calms down).  He wakes up with a hilarious 'do each and every morning.  I kind of want to take a picture of him every day for a year when he first gets up and then do a time-lapse video of all the photos, just for fun.  And to play at his wedding rehearsal some day.  Ha!

The face Dan makes when he thinks he's "smiling."

Might want to rethink that plan of attack, buddy.

Cooling off in the misting machine.

Swimming on base

We're all settled in here in Leavenworth and busy finding ways to beat the heat.  Since we live only about three minutes from the base, we're taking advantage of all the free/cheap activities there.  The boys LOVE to swim so we've been to the pool three times in the last five days.  And because we're halfway through the summer, the family pass was half price so we'll be going a lot more between now and Sept 7th when the pools close!  

(Zach wants everyone to know that he captioned the photos today, by the way.)

Pause to urinate.

The embodiment of joy and mirth in the splash park.

The wolf man tried to seize the older boy, but was staved off with a T bone.  

Splash park after picture.  Ben got upended by his brother, and chose to break his fall with his face. 

Noelridge Park (Cedar Rapids)

What a whirlwind week we've had!  We moved into our new house in Leavenworth last Tuesday, spent three days unpacking, then we headed to Iowa for my cousin's wedding.  Thank goodness for my mom or we'd still be living out of boxes!

Like most of the country, Iowa was ridiculously hot.  But that didn't stop us from trying to get some outside time.  There was a cool park really close to our hotel so we went to the playground at about 8:30 in the morning and it was already almost 100 degrees.  So we didn't stay too long!  After the playground, my cousin Kelly and I took the boys to the pool at Noelridge Park.  It had some amazing slides and water features.  No pictures of the pool, unfortunately, since we had our hands full with Dan and Ben!