Zoo...Kindergarten Prep...1st Date Anniversary

We've kept pretty busy this summer.  Two weekends ago we went to the Woodland Park Zoo, during the thunderstorm.  Apparently that's a great time to go because the animals get a little antsy around thunder and lightning.  The ostrich out in the Savannah area was instigating stampedes of the giraffe, zebra and antelope.  That was pretty cool to see.  A lot of the time the animals at the zoo are sleeping because it's either too hot or they're just bored.  This was the first time I've ever seen the bears awake, they were pacing in a rather agitated manner.  We were prepared for a little rain so it worked out pretty well.  Last weekend we bought Holiday's school supplies and I have some clothes on order for her.  I haven't received her teacher assignment yet but she's otherwise all set for Adams with Kids Co before and after school care.  She's been rather enjoying her summer with summer day camp.  Hopefully she'll be just as excited with the change to Kindergarten.  Today is the Anniversary of David's and my first date.  It was 9 years ago and we went to the Guadalajara in Wallingford (that closed down a while ago) and then we went to Murphy's afterwards.  We've barely apart ever since that day.

Summer stuff

Last weekend we went to Remlinger Farms out in Carnation.  We love going there and the kids always have a good time.  Johnny has a little separation anxiety while going on rides so it might be a while before he tries that again.  We went on the miniature steam engine pulled train together as a family.  Johnny liked that but was all serious in disposition.  I think his favorite part was feeding the goats.  I swear those goats were the daintiest (but still ever eager) I have ever seen.  I could barely feel their goat lips as they ate the kibble provided out of my hand.  Holiday rode on the mini roller coaster with me but absolutely hated it.  She swore to never go on a roller coaster again.  Mommy might have to ride the rides by herself for a while (possibly forever no one really seems all that keen on it).  Both the kids rode horses.  Holiday was assigned to Peaches and Johnny rode a little pony named Raisin.  He was gripping with both hands for dear life but he did it without fuss as long as I held onto him with both hands too.  Sorry to say there's no picture of this but all hands were engaged at the time.  We ate lunch in their cafe on the site which they have model train tracks up near the ceiling with a couple of trains going around in the dining area so there always seem to be some sort of entertainment.  The kids fell asleep pretty quickly in the car going home.

Today is August 1st which is my personal annual check in.  In all honesty I have not lost any weight this year, but maintained.  But my focus was primarily on correcting my diastasis recti and in that department I have made tremendous progress.  The gap in my torn abs was probably about 8 cm a year ago and now it's closed to about 1 cm and have since weened myself off any kind of binding device.  There's still a lot of pooch coming outward above my bellybutton but my hope is as I lose weight and get my abs stronger that some of that will go away.  I've switched programs to one that is more fitness geared and comes with great reviews.  I'm just glad I won't need cosmetic surgery for it.  It's been too hot to much gardening other than watering.  I sneak it in when I can in the evenings.  I'm still experimenting with canning.  I made a couple mistakes with the pickles and made a couple of realizations as well.  It's a new hobby for me so I believe there's some learning curve involved.  I'm not sure when I'll make another attempt.  It's been so hot I really don't want to heat up the house with canning activities.  That just might have to wait a while.