Miami Zoo

Ben and Beth were amazing-again-and gave us some discount tickets to the zoo. It was so much fun! It's HUGE! We were there for over four hours and made it through about 1/5 of the map. Craziness. It's definitely a little bigger than the Hogle Zoo, haha. 

Ruth had fun spotting the animals. I was showing Ruth the pelican, below, when she spotted the second one and she was so excited!!!

We went inside the Wings of Asia building. Ruth was more impressed with the fish floating around than the dozens of birds flying around--typical. :)

 I'm having a hard time. I know if it was me looking at someone's pictures, I'd scroll through all the animal pictures and just look at the ones of them--but some of the animals were SOOOO cool!

This guy was my favorite bird, he literally has a box on his head!

Crocodiles!

This cool bear was just hangin' out in a tree. Haha!

Meet Henry. He provided a LOT of entertainment. He swung around branches and ropes for us, he walked up close to us, and he walked over to a window when we asked him to (Ruth decided she wasn't SO fond of being that close). It was awesome!

And this orangutan was my favorite thing we saw today. So here are WAY too many pictures of him:

Henry and him are buds.

 I know, I know. You're sick of the monkey pictures. It was so cool though! 

Henry getting a little too close to Ruthie for comfort.

 On to the tiger.

The tiger had his own castle. Pretty sweet.

Pretty majestic looking. 

After the tiger we stopped for lunch (PB&J) and Ben and Beth took Caroline home for a nap. It was the most humid day we've been outside in Miami so far--it was a little bit horrid. Sterling said he wanted to start carrying a hankie around in his pocket so he could wipe his brow with it periodically throughout the day. It could definitely be useful. I felt so sticky. Yuck. So we decided to head towards the splash pad and see what we could see in the meantime.

Random fluffy dude.

 TURTLES! My absolute FAVORITE animal!!! These dudes were BIG.

Hot. Sticky. Watching the turtles. 

Watch out for the wart hogs!

Okay, this might be my favorite part. You start walking along the Amazon River. It was absolutely gorgeous. Even in the humidity. Although I felt a little like getting on a wooden raft and singing 'Old Man River' while we sauntered along. 

Isn't that scenery just gorgeous?

We made it to what we *thought* was the splash pad. Turns out there is a much bigger, much better, much more exciting splash pad about a hundred yards from where we were. But when we walked past it was packed, so I'm kinda glad we stopped here and stayed. The kids LOVED it. Unfortunately, adding to an already long list of bruises from that morning, Ruthie fell on the corner of a rock and sliced her thigh and palm. Her thigh only bled a little but her palm bled and bled. Used up all four of the bandaids I had in my diaper bag--guess I should revamp that supply a little. Surprisingly, she stayed happy and continued to play for a LONG time.

He's started pulling you to where he wants to go, it's pretty cute. 

Where is he pulling me?

Nothing we said or threatened could convince them to stop drinking the water. I think Ruthie was mostly just sticking her face in--but Will got a mouth full a few times. 

This is what I did while Sterling played with the kids. Seriously, it was SO hot by that point. I wanted to make it through the Amazon section so bad but I decided to call it quits after that because I just couldn't handle walking in the humidity anymore. I came home and ate no less than 6 otter pops with the AC blowing in my face. I'm not sure I'm used to you yet, Miami.

31 weeks.

Due to the extreme hot weather and Ruthie's sadness at leaving the water--we promised her an ice cream cone. It was practically melted when they handed it to us over the counter. But I still think it was thoroughly enjoyed. 

When we got back in the van it said it was only 84 degrees. Oh humidity, you definitely were there today! Actually, on our walk back to the van the beautiful breeze that I usually can feel came back and it wasn't too terrible. Next time, we'll hit all the other sweet places and the big splash pad. But all in all, it was a terrific day. We saw TONS of cool animals (koalas, kangaroos, howling dogs, lizards, snakes, wart hogs, warty pigs, and more!) Ruth LOVED the animals, we all did really, and it was so beautiful and entertaining. Ben and Beth were amazing and gave us discount passes for the day and we can take them in for 40% off a year pass--which I think we'll end up doing. The zoo is RIGHT by our house, it's going to take us months to explore all of it, and I think we can visit for the splash pad alone until it cools down in the winter months and then we can enjoy other parts too. 

Thanks for a great day, Zoo Miami!

Surfside Beach

Our friends Ben and Beth (who I keep meaning to post about, but they are the couple who Sterling stayed with when he flew down to interview and then housed us for a night when we got here at 2am and they are in our ward--he's one year ahead of Sterling at U of M) have been awesome at telling us about their experiences so we don't have to take the same amount of time to figure things out.

They also invited us to this beach. Their friends had told them about it (finding family-friendly beaches seems to be the trickiest when searching out beaches here) and recommended it. We had just gotten our fridge and stove professionally cleaned (the parts are still coming, but at least they're useable) so I was in EXCELLENT spirits and this beach could not have been more amazing!

The weather was perfect. We're slowly getting used to what 'rainy season' means. If it didn't rain in the morning, it will probably rain in the afternoon, and if you make it an entire day without rain it will definitely rain through the night and morning. This day was clear. We ended up leaving around four thirty because it was getting windy and it started to rain on our way home---so our timing could not have been better!

That's a teeny tiny Beth and Ben and Caroline in the water.

Ruth and Will LOVED it! We started out with PB&J sandwiches since they hadn't eaten lunch yet. Ruth was very concerned about the sand on her hands getting on her sandwich, but we managed. Sterling was an angel and set up our brand-new sunshade while I fed and sunscreened the kids. Then we were ready to play!

He's a man who loves his PB&J.

Ben was super nice and volunteered to take Will out while I finished eating.

You can see in this picture how the very edge of the water kind of had some mucky/plant/vegetation thing lurking in it, but once you got past that it was shallow for a LONG time and SOOOOO clear!

It's so weird to see the city buildings. They are everywhere and they go on and on forever in every direction. It's such a huge city!

Will sat in that exact spot in the sand with his shovel and bucket for almost two hours. He likes the water, but man, he LOVES the sand!

It seriously was SO clear and SO beautiful!!!!! 

Our newest purchase--the sunshade. I love it already. It was perfect. I actually felt like we packed really well for a day at the beach. Lots of food and snacks, lots of sunscreen, and we've decided that tote will just be our swimming tote, so it didn't matter at all how sandy everything got.

(My mom sewed up this maternity swimsuit for me in the front once upon a time, but now I've resorted to pinning it. Sorry.)

I love every minute of it. I've never really been to the ocean, minus when I was three in California and then the few times we've dipped our toes in since moving here two weeks ago. This was the first swim. It was amazing. I loved the waves, I loved the sun, I loved the sand, I loved finding sea shells. Definitely could get used to this. 

The sun here is different too. You don't feel like you're baking, like you do in Utah. It just feels warm and comfy. I like it.

Superhero dad carrying all our stuff AND the kids. My pregnant belly was getting tired because we had parked a little ways away. Love you babe! Oh and see Ruthie in the corner covering her ears? She thinks the city is way TOO loud. Poor girl. She walked like that the entire way to and from the beach.

Surfside was in the same area as Miami Beach so the streets were really beautifully kept and touristy. It was fun to walk through them.

Until next time, beach!