Overnight Getaway

 For a while now we have talked about taking Tyke to the zoo.  We had hoped to go in the spring time, before I was way pregnant and miserable but life got too busy and we kept putting it off.  As summer winded down and cherry season ended I told Chad that we needed a little weekend getaway BAD!  He agreed!  And so, I booked us a room in Salt Lake (which is kind of lame considering it's only an hours drive away) and we took Friday off from work.  We were loaded and gone by 10 a.m.  Tyke napped the entire drive which was probably a good thing.  He was well rested and ready to run once we got to the zoo.  We arrived just before noon and checked out all of the animals.  We only missed one building in our adventure but that's OK.  Tyke loved the zoo!

The leopard wanted him for lunch (it was eery how he looked at Tyke and none of the other kids, he seriously wanted to grab him!), and the gorilla freaked Tyke out.  He was sitting right at the window watching the kids and being so calm.  Tyke eventually warmed up and waved at him.  We finished off our zoo experience with a little train ride that was the highlight of Tyke's day!  As soon as our ride was over the rain started up and we left for our hotel.  Our timing couldn't have been better!

We stayed at the Little America.  Our room wasn't all that great but it did the job.  It rained so hard the rest of the day and night.  We enjoyed relaxing and napping with the sliding door open so we could enjoy the cool breeze and rain storm.  Around 5:30 p.m. we decided to go and find some dinner.  We ate at Tucanos at the Gateway.  Tyke has never ate better than he did that night.  He ate and ate and ate and tried so many different things (no chicken hearts for him though, nice try Daddy!) but he really chowed down on pasta in Alfredo sauce, mashed potatoes, and watermelon.  He even ate a little bit of meat that was brought by our table.  Chad and I were done eating long before Tyke was.  We sat at our table an extra twenty to thirty minutes while he finished up his meal.  We were both impressed!

The next morning we wasted no time getting out of Salt Lake.  We stopped at a Village Inn for breakfast, and once again Tyke pigged out on his meal.  Afterwards we headed to Riverton to the Holman Family Reunion.  We bought tickets for the Ruby's Raffle and Tyke won big!  He won treats galore, a coloring book and crayons, a mini basketball, Nemo go-fish cards, and a Mickey Mouse story book!  After the raffle was over it was time to get serious and win some money.  A tarp was layed out with a big pile of sawdust on it.  Underneath all of that sawdust was candy and $100 in quarters!  Tyke killed it and walked away with two small bags full of candy and quarters ($23.50 to be exact!).  

After the reunion we worked our way home stopping at a few places to shop and doing some grocery shopping as well.  It was a much needed little vacay but we were so glad to be back home!