The Not-so-Free "Free Day" at the Zoo and Weekend with Grandpa Thornton

Grandpa and Trey

Yet another week has flown by and I will quickly try to hit the highlights. Last Monday was Trey's first session of speech therapy. The therapist will be coming to our home once a month for in home therapy. Before we started she explained that she usually plans about one hour, but because this was his first session he would probably only last about 30 minutes. After about 3 minutes of being shy and refusing to look at the therapist, Trey quickly warmed up. He loved it! He was totally involved and excited for over 45 minutes of therapy and play. Not only will he be working on his speech but they also integrate other areas of learning that will help him in the long run. Since his first session, we haven't noticed any dramatic improvements in his speech, but he does continue to try.

Last Wednesday we planned a trip to the Birmingham Zoo. The day trip had been on my calender for over 3 months, after a quick search on the Internet found that October 1st was "Free Day" at the Birmingham Zoo. So I told my friends, offered to car pool and was very excited about the free activity. Upon our arrival to the zoo first thing Wednesday morning I approached the gate and asked if it was Free Day at the Zoo. To my astonishment the lady at the window said that no it was not a free day at the zoo. I explained to her that I had seen the day advertised on the Internet and was pretty sure that it was a free day at the zoo. She was not believing me so she called her supervisor to the front office. He came and once again refuted my claim that it was supposed to be a free day at the zoo. At this point I was getting a little frustrated because I knew I had seen the day posted on the Internet. Well, I finally talked the supervisor into letting me show him on his computer the page I had pulled up. I pulled it up and he said that is an old link and the free day at the zoo was actually offered in 2007. No where within the posting about the free day at the zoo did it have the year posted, however if you scrolled further down the page there was some reference to the year 2007...I didn't hence the confusion. I felt somewhat vilified after at least showing him that I wasn't lying and that there was a page out there like that, but all I got from him was a "that's why you shouldn't do searches like that" and you will have to pay full price if you want to come in. We paid, the zoo wasn't that great, but the kids had fun. I learned a lesson or two out of this experience, but it still stinks!

The only picture I have of the kids at the zoo...the battery ran out...just one of those days

Jeff's dad, Daryl, came into town Friday to spend the weekend with us and to go to the race at Talledega on Sunday. Have I mentioned that we love visitors? We took him fishing Friday night and then enjoyed the beautiful night around a campfire roasting smores. Saturday we headed to the lake where we helped out at the lake house and then went jet skiing for a couple of hours. It was a gorgeous day, but we were pretty beat after a long day. Saturday night he took us to Chick-fil-A for dinner, which we LOVED! Sunday we enjoyed conference while he was at the race. We had the missionaries and some investigators over for the last session of conference and then dinner. The kids loved having other kids around during conference and surprisingly they behaved better during that session than they ever have. Maybe we will have to try inviting other kids over again in April??? Monday before Daryl left we ate lunch with Bayley at school. It was nice to see him and for the kids to get to spend that much time with him. They loved it!

Tuesday was Kendal's last soccer game. It was a short season, but a fun one. She was a lot of fun to watch. She didn't score a goal, but she did have opportunities! She is just fiesty enough to be good at it if that is what she decides she wants to do.

Tomorrow Bayley gets her cast off and pins taken out. We are excited about the cast coming off, but a little nervous about how she is going to react to the pins being taken out. I'll have to remember to document how it goes.

Friday we leave for Albuquerque, New Mexico to see my Grandpa and Grandma Rogers. We will be getting there in time to see a little bit of the Balloon Festival which is definitely exciting. We are also looking forward to spending some time with my grandparents who we really haven't seen much in the last 5 years. The kids are going to love it! Hopefully we will have lots of pictures to share!