After enjoying a sunny California morning, we were on our way to the lake!

Isn’t this just perfect for the Ziemke family!?!  They are so cool!

I love the Ziemke’s new bonsai trees… these little trees have always fascinated me!

 

Rose was ready for a nap right as we were loading up the car – great timing!

Corbin and Lauren were so good with Rose!

This picture of the California countryside was taken from inside the car on the way to the lake.  Although the drive was 7 hours, it didn’t feel like it at all because of the beautiful scenery.

We finally made it to our ultimate relaxation destination, and Rose was ready to cuddle up with all her new buddies!

Lauren must have taken this picture because I found it on the camera when I got home – so cute!!!

This is the view from the deck of the cabin at Nacimiento.  It was the perfect temperature… not too hot, not too cold!

Rose and Grandpa Jim were ready to have some fun!

I brought a special pumpkin cupcake surprise and made it right off the bat so that we could enjoy them all week.  I topped it off with cream cheese icing and peanut butter cup chocolate chips!

Rose and Grandpa Jim had a crawling race across the room.  Rose was tickled to have so much attention!

These are all my treats!  I made chocolate pumpkin cupcakes too, some with icing and some with powdered sugar!  Cindy didn’t like them at all (she’s weird), but Curt ate one every day and even finished them off for breakfast the last day, so I’d call them a hit!!!

Clarissa and I have been sneaking around for the past month working on surprising her family for Thanksgiving!  All of our behind the scenes effort paid off with such a fun day of surprising everyone!

 

All of our Pond babies have always loved the Ziemke kids and cuddle with them right off the bat!  No introductions needed!  We ended up telling Cayden two days before I got there because we just had to tell someone else (Clarissa told her grandma Celia too)!

Cindy was at work when we arrived, so we got to surprise Curt first.  Clarissa walked in with baby Rose on her hip and Curt said he instantly knew it was a Pond girl and was looking over his shoulder for me!

This is how far back Cindy and I go, and Curt for that matter, because they were high school sweethearts.  I gave Cindy this magnet a few years ago because it has “Friends” misspelled on it and that just made me laugh and reminded me of how goofy we are together!

 

Corbin has been begging to meet baby Rose, and he was SO good with her!  This was Cindy getting filled in on the big surprise.  She was so shocked… she said it was surreal! 

Rose and Curt instantly bonded.

It was so incredible to see their little connection unfold before our eyes!

And this is how our week began, with these two so thankful for some time together!

For Cindy’s awesome “surprise” story, check out her blog at:

http://curtziemke.blogspot.com/2011/11/surprise.html

So this is what happened on Rose’s first airplane ride!  I prayed with Mike that morning that I would meet a sweet grandmother to help me on the plane…

And God brought me Brenda (and as a bonus an empty seat in between us for Rose to take a good long nap)!  Brenda was on her way to California to see her grandson and said she needed practice holding a baby on the airplane ride.  She was amazing, and Rose couldn’t get enough of her.  At the end of the flight, I told her about our prayer and asked her if I could take her picture to show Mike who we had prayed for that morning.  She teared up and said, “Isn’t God amazing!?!”

Word Origin & History

Cornucopia

1508, from L. cornu copiæ "horn of plenty," originally the horn of the goat Amalthea, who nurtured the infant Zeus.

Leave it to the Greeks to steal our thunder… I thought we had dibs on that horn!

Mike hosted Thanksgiving on the home front this year!  Mike’s parents, brother and his wife, and grandmother were all able to come over to celebrate! 

Noelle drew turkeys to give to our Thanksgiving guests!

Melissa’s Thanksgiving surprise

Rara rocked it out with this scarecrow display for Dad’s office!  Hope you guys are having a Happy Thanksgiving!!!  Lots of fun “surprise” photos next week…

 

You’re not going to believe this, but this was our first trip to the zoo since we’ve had kids.  I’m not kidding.  Look back in the archives… we’ve never been!  Noelle went with Poppa and Rara once when we went to Cancun, and we went to Sea World last year but never the zoo… we will definitely go back when I forget how tired I am… probably in another 5 years – lol!  We had a great day for real though, and made lots of awesome memories!!!

This is a mean salt water croc!

  

Noelle was pointing out where the snake was to Anna Kate, and she flipped out!

 

We each had something we wanted to see (well all except for me)… Mike wanted to see the monkeys, Noelle wanted to see the snakes, and Anna Kate wanted to see the birdies!!! (can you tell her wish was coming true!?!)

This is a huge komodo dragon! (I couldn’t even fit all of him in my lens)

I asked Anna Kate who was in this picture.  She proudly said, “Daddy, Anna Katey, and my blankey!”  (of course)

Wow, this penguin gave us a show!  Every time he swam up to the glass, the kids in unison, gasped “Ahh!”  He was so fast and kept coming back… it’s like he knew he was the center of attention and was basking in it.  But the leader of the pack (dude on the upper right-hand side of the pic) was not impressed, let me just say that.  I love his little fur sweater!  He was frustrated that there was some goofing around going on… makes “Happy Feet” that much more real.  Great movie, by the way!

Anna Kate digging the penguin parade!

  

Wow!  Anna Kate so proudly said “MY MINGOS!!!” right before I took this picture!

This is the way we roll!

This elephant was cooling off by flicking sand on his back and then his underside with his trunk.  It was a cool thing to witness!

“When I was a young warthog!!!”

 

This little creature of God is a stand out for sure!

Cool stance… never seen a giraffe bend over quite like this before, and I love that the little ducks are just chillin’ right beside their long necked friend!

I have to be me… I’m sick of censoring myself on here… it’s not real life.  I just try not to offend anyone, but I need to be me for me, so if you find this stuff offensive, just skip this post or stop reading.  It won’t hurt my feelings, I promise!

Okay, so here it goes… this elephant “dropped a deuce!” as one might say…

And this is the face that Bella made when she saw it happen.  Seeing the whole thing unfold just cracked me up…

The girls loved seeing this bird catch a real live (well not any more) mouse.  If you’re grossed out, I’m sorry.  For being wiggy about animals, the graphic stuff about the animal kingdom just doesn’t bother me like it probably does some of you… just skip this part! (or is that option too late!?!)

We were all excited to get so close to the white tiger!

This is the lazy animal series… Mike should’ve videoed me above him trying to make him wake up.  I bet I made a fool of myself, and it was all for nothing because the stinker did not budge.

The kangaroos had nothing for us either.  Lazy little things!

 

This is a baboon and a dangling orangutan!

I know this little lady needs some clothes (sorry ‘bout that), but the girls thought their kisses were so sweet, so I had to include a picture for them to have.

This is Noelle with the outdoor warm weather penguins… I always wanted a penguin for a pet as a child.  I wonder if there would be a way to get one of these guys for a pet (there are probably regulations against that, but it would be cool)… most of you guys know we don’t have pets, and I am definitely not an animal person, so this would never be an option for my kids… but it would be fun… just saying…

Happy Zoo Day!

I love the depth of field Mike did in this shot… too cool!

 

Precious Anna Kate was so excited to be so close to the birds!

Aww… how sweet!

 

Noelle just landed her first bird!

I love this picture!

 

Landry and Noelle were pretending to be birds with leaf wings!

So, have you ever had an interaction with a primate?  I can now say, I have!  This gorilla was sitting about 20 yards away and when I walked up to the window, he did a double take and then looked at me like, “I know you are not going to make me come over there!” as he slowly got up and walked over to me.  He never broke eye contact with me as he stared me straight in the eyes, and right there, one foot away, separated only by glass, our worlds collided.

Everyone had backed away from the window at this point, the kids were all freaked out.  Too close!  And then he made this face, which I soon found out meant, “Now I’m going to do something that will really impress you!”  *Stop reading for those of you that don’t like a good poop story… he pooped right there while he was still staring at me… and then he picked it up with one hand and slowly ate it with his other hand using his pinky finger.  That’s simply what happened, don’t shoot the messenger.

I asked the girls what they learned at the zoo today, and the first thing both of them said was, “Gorillas eat their poo poo with their pinky finger!”  No wonder this is a top rated zoo… you don’t just see the animals and keep walking, you really learn about them, whether you want to or not.  It’s just there.  It’s nature.  It’s life.