Day 46

Another day here and gone. Talked about cold water animals this morning including penguins, polar bears, walruses, and fish. Then, we went and visited the tiger, snow leopard, lions, and the gibbons. I had never seen the gibbons quite so close before. There was some food sitting there when we walked back by, so they were just hanging out right along the fence.

 

Then, we fed the parakeets. At one point, Matt says, "Look Miss Jessica, I have two parakeets,"; he had the biggest smile on his face :-)

We played a little duck, duck, goose outside while we waited for everyone to finish feeding the parakeets.

The animal presenter brought the corn snake and the little American alligator today. Next, we visited the Magellan Penguins (which are warm water penguins from South America) and stopped by the prairie dog tunnel.

Then, we took our individual photos for the week. We have one set of twins this week - Izzy and Addy.

We also have two brothers - Ezra and Owen.

And two more siblings - Selena and Sebastian.

We also spent a little time at the playground this morning. I think I forgot to mention the other day, that another repeat camper we have this week is Cyrus. He climbed up here all by himself, and then saw I had my camera out.

Today's craft project was a paper penguin.

When I met up with the 5th and 6th graders this afternoon, Ella handed me this bracelet she made by braiding pipe cleaners.

Their main project for today was putting together their exhibit for the zoo. Their camp is "Zoo Tycoon", and they were each assigned an animal for which they are designing an exhibit. Today, they started putting together the little display in a box. One cool supply quite a few of them enjoyed were these things that look like packing peanuts. You just get them wet, and then they stick together. Kind of cool.

They also got to spend some time at the playground this afternoon and fed the goats. So, here I am being Miss Photographer thinking outside of the ordinary... took a picture of the goat feed in the bucket. I like the photo, myself, but feel free to make your own judgements. hahaha

Katie, the counselor in charge of the 5th and 6th graders left a little early today to head to an award ceremony for her mom, so I was in charge of check-out, which isn't too big of a deal. It actually felt good to be in charge of the clipboard again in the afternoon. I'm so used to doing it for our 5 and 6 year olds. haha

After work, Averee took me to Tires Plus, where I found my car with the spare tire in place. Only cost me $13.25 for the tire change. The one that blew was beyond repair, and I think I'll be getting some new tires within the next couple weeks. Here's a photo of my spare tire... ain't she a beaut? hahaha

Then, I took some photos to help explain to my dad this piece that I was missing. This way, we'll find one and when I find myself with a flat tire on the side of the road, I can jack her up and change it myself and not be stuck waiting for a tow. hahaha

Here's a photo of my dad and I probably posted the weekend he was here visitng, but here it is again. I think it's a good one.

Finally, I talked with my mom for about a half hour on the phone tonight. Been a while since I've just chatted with her on the phone for that amount of time, so it was fun. My mom's probably gonna send me an email in the morning saying what did you post that for (and for posting this exact statement hahaha), but oh well. Just for kicks, here's a photo of my mom and I. Remember, I like to post photos of my friends that I mention in my blog :-)

Day 45

Shall I start by saying it has been an interesting day... Not bad per se, but interesting... First off, I forgot my camera this morning. However, I still took some photos throughout the day using the camera in my phone. I almost felt lost without my camera in my pocket all day, but having some photos was better than none at all for me, especially considering some events of the day.

So, I'm working before care this week as you may have caught on. I'm actually working early shift for the rest of the summer. Anyways, this morning Dawson, a 3rd or 4th grader, asked to play Monopoly, which I said I would. Wow! He was quite the banker. He knew exactly what was going on. I was impressed, and it made for a fun game of Monopoly.

Went on our tour of the Discovery Center today. Here was my little group - Pantera, Ezra, Owen, Benji, and Elijah:

The animal presenter brought the tiger salamander and ornate box turtle for us to see. We made jelly fish today for craft using paper bowls, crayons, and tissue paper. Then, we rode the train after lunch. Addy and Matt sat with me.

 Then, I headed with the 5th and 6th graders at 1:00 again. First thing was a special tour of the Australia exhibit with one of the keepers. Learned a few new things on this tour. I took this photo because he had pointed out that the kookaburras inside were the parents, and the ones in the outside portion were their offspring. He also showed us some of the wallabies that are currently inside the station here, and we were told that eventually there will be 10 bachelor wallabies out by the train, and there will be 40 wallabies running around in the Australia exhibit itself. Wow! That sounds like a lot to me. Wonder if I'll get to see that before I move...

Then, the 5th and 6th graders rode the train this afternoon. So here I go again, and Maddie sat with me. Two train rides in one day with completely a completely different group of campers.

Then, we stopped by the Japanese Macaque exhibit because they usually do some sort of animal enrichment at 2:00. One of the keepers brought some banana and was feeding it to the monkeys, and she pointed out the alpha female and alpha male to us and talked a little bit about them. In this photo  took, the alpha female is in the bottom left hand corner; then, the alpha male is in the bottom right hand corner.

After snack, we headed to the classroom where we worked on the craft project for the day - stained glass hangings. I remember doing quite a few of these when I was their age. They also played this zookeeper game... sort of a role-playing mystery game.

Alright, so I clock out at 4:15pm, head out to the parking lot to find myself a tire flat as a pancake. "Really?", was the first thought I had. I should have taken this photo from a better angle, but you get the idea.

I totally could have changed it myself, but I figured we have AAA for times like this. So I called, and when the guy got there it turns out that I was missing part of my crank to lower the spare tire. He had to towed it to the nearest tire shop for me, which is where my Mountaineer is spending the night. Wow... crazy how I've had my vehicle for 5 years and haven't had a flat tire on it until now. It didn't really bum me out or put me in a bad mood cause things happen, and I felt fortunate that I was just in the parking lot in the zoo rather than in the middle of the road. Here's to another life experience, I guess :-)

One of my friends from work gave me a ride back home, where Averee's dad had made goulash and home made bread. I was quite impressed that he made the bread himself, so had to take a photo for the blog. haha Good stuff, by the way.

Day 44

Monday's always go by soo fast. There's so much paperwork and things to tell parents when they bring their kids in the morning, then we have to set up classroom rules, we introduce ourselves, and then it's lunch before we know it. Then, it's 1:00 before I know it, and half of our 5 and 6 year olds are going home.. turns out my routine is a little different this week. There is a 5th and 6th grade camp that needs an extra helper this week, and guess who gets that job :-)

First, I'll sum up what happened while I was with the 5 and 6 year olds. It is Splash! week, so we learned about freshwater today. The animal presenter brought the leopard gecko and a giant African millipede this morning. We fed the Japanese Koi, toured through Australia, and took our group photo.

 

Two of our campers this week - Alora and Mattthew - are a few that we had way back in our first week of camp.

After checking out half of our campers at 1:00,  I met up with the 5th and 6th graders. I felt like I shrunk when I got there... I went from having kids at my waist to almost eye level. hahaha It was fun to do something a little different. After I was introduced, one of the girls said to me, "Hey, we have the same name." I replied, "Yes, finally another Jessica! I haven't met one yet this summer." 

We did a Scavenger Hunt throughout the zoo, which was kind of fun. I learned some new things about the animals. For instance, giraffes have eyes the size of tennis balls. These kids like to talk, and it was cool to talk with older kids. I went from 5-6 year olds 10-12 year olds. No animal hokey pokey is going to work with these kids. hahaha It was fun to chat with some of them, though. Maddie talked to me a bunch, and she was one that I had met this morning while on before care duty. 

We finished up the day by working on a craft project. A woven basket/pencil holder from newspaper. Quite the time consuming craft project I couldn't even think about attempting with the Kidnergarteners. haha Here's the one I finished up:

It was 4:00 before we knew it. Although I'm a bit sad that I won't get to know some of these 5 and 6 year olds as well, I'm excited to change my routine up a bit this week by helping with the 5th and 6th graders in the afternoon.

At one point this afternoon I saw Alec, a former camper. He had been in our first Splash! week with us this summer along with his twin brother Daniel. He actually saw me first, waved, and said "hey" :-) Later, I saw Kaitlyn, who is one of the kids I worked with at Beyond the Bell this last semester at Longfellow Elementary in Sioux City. It was fun to see her, and she gave me a hug. This reminds me that I forgot to mention last Thursday bumping into Milik, another one of my kids from Beyond the Bell. Funny how I've ran into people I know that are just visiting the zoo.

So I brought back my friend Jeremy's mail for him from school. We met up tonight in Ankeny to make the mail transfer. He suggested this new ice cream place, which I remember seeing when I lived with Kari in Ankeny but never got around to going. It was fun to just catch up with him for a while. I hadn't seen Jeremy since we got out of school back in May. Here's a photo I dug up of us from this last semester seeing as how I've been posting photos of my friends:

Fantastic Weekend

I actually trekked up to Sioux City Friday after work. This was my last chance to see one of my good friends for a while because she is moving to Emporia, KS for grad school. I am so glad that I made this trip. Friday night after I got there, I met up with Amanda (the one going to grad school), Karena, and her boyfriend for dinner at one of our favorite places - Buffalo Wild Wings (a.k.a. B'dubs). Then we just hung out in Karena's apartment, where Amanda and I both stayed this weekend. We also made a late night Taco Bell run, which is always fun.

Karena gave me the souvenirs she picked up for me while she was in London on May Term. I got a shot glass, an eraser from the London Zoo, and a pencil.

Here's a photo I have of Amanda, Karena and me from this last school year: (We took some photos this weekend because it's just one of the things we do, but I failed to get a good one of the three of us together)

When we woke up around 9 on Saturday morning, we headed to Caribou Coffee, which is always fun. I took Shalimar to the bank, and on our way back I see a car that looks like Dr. Heyborne, and as we get closer I say "Is that Dr. H?", I wave, and it sure looked like him. Then, here comes a call from Bill Heyborne on my phone... He says to me, "Yes, this is Dr. H. I could read your lips, which was really funny." hahaha Amanda and I then ate lunch with Shalimar at Olive Garden, while Karena was getting ready for work. After lunch, I helped Shalimar move her stuff from Roadman to the Garretson house along with our friend Brittany. We were M'side football game buddies this year. Here's a photo of Shalimar, Brittany, and me at one of the games:

Then, Amanda and I went and checked out the flooding. It doesn't really look like it went down much from the last time I vistited Sioux City, although I was able to take Interstate all the way there this time. We also went and visited Karena at Target, which is where she works right now. We decided to try a new place for dinner tonight - Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar. This turned out to be a great idea! It was so much fun, and we tried some new things. We ordered some crab rangoon sushi and... get this... Eel sushi. Yes, EEL! It was good, too :-)

This is one of those places where they grill some food right in front of you, so we also ordered an entree that we split -shrimp, noodles, rice, and vegetables.

As the chef was cooking the rice, he started flinging some at those of us around the table, and you were supposed to catch it in your mouth. Amanda caught hers on the first try... Me, not so much. haha  I finally got one though, after some rice hit my nose, went down my shirt, and ended up on the floor. haha What a fun time, though.

Then, I had to stop in Matt and Ryan's room to pick up some mail that my friend Jeremy asked for me to bring back to him. He lives in Ankeny. As I was up there chatting with the boys, Matt asked if I had seen their new house yet. He, Kyle, and Jeremy will be living with one other guy off-campus this coming year. I had not seen it yet, and Matt said he was headed over there to play some Nintendo 64 if I wanted to come check it out. So, I got Amanda and we went along. Can I just say, I haven't played the Nintendo 64 since Sheldon and I had one when we were younger. Brings back memories, and it was such a good time. Saw Kyle while we were there. We all played some Mario Kart, and then they put in Super Smash Brothers. Amanda rocked that game, and the boys were baffled. hahaha Then, after the first round, I kept taking 2nd place behind her. That's right boys... girls can play, too. Amanda and I kept laughing as we beat the boys at their game. We all had fun together, even though the boys didn't enjoy losing to a couple of girls so many times. I think they'll live :-)

This weekend just kept continuing to make me laugh and smile. Felt good to be back for a few days again. After the Nintendo 64 with the guys, Amanda and I went to Dairy Queen and walked around campus until Karena got off of work. Then, as we were hanging out again, Amanda suggested doing a little photo scavenger hunt for fun. I've heard of these things before, but never actually participated in one. Well, Amanda and I were on a team with our friend Kendall vs. Karena and Andy. My team won, thank you very much. haha

Here's a few of the things we took photos of and did.
1. Photo on a home plate:

2. Photo by a hummer:

3. Photo of a garden gnome: (we got creative with this one)

4. A ring from a vending machine:

5. A receipt for $0.17 worth of gas:

Soo much fun. I love going around and taking random photos with my friends. Then, Sunday, Jackie and Jessie came back so I got to see them. Jessie has been my roommate for the last two years, and Jackie is her twin sister. Before leaving, Amanda, Karena, Jackie, and I went to IHOP for brunch together. All in all, a mighty fantastic weekend with a handful of my friends from Morningside. I loved every minute of it. Soo glad I made it up there. A weekend I'm never going to forget :-)