How to beat the January BLAHS!!!!!

Usually, right after the Christmas craziness, we don't seem to have any time to unwind because a snow storm is looming, and all of our energy is transferred from the holidays to SNOW. But this year, after the decorations were all put away, and everyone headed back to school and work, I actually found myself a bit in the doldrums. A snow-less January actually makes for a long, dreary month. To help pull me out of my winter doldrums Chris and I decided to take the 3 youngest kids, (CJ and Kylie were at work,) to the Philadelphia Pet EXPO. Ok, I know what your thinking...."Please don't bring another animal into that house." No worries. We played, we had fun, we came home empty handed.

Below is a pic of Madison then Avery holding a cock-a-too. Kamryn was too scared to go near the bird, let alone hold it. Madison did ask us to buy her one, but I stood my ground and said NO.

There was also a petting zoo. Avery and Kamryn went in to pet the various animals. This one is my favorite, the alpaca. What a cool animal. Very docile and affectionate. And their wool is worth a bit of cash. Maybe I could talk Chris into buying me an alpaca farm, or at least just one to roam the back yard.

Kamryn with the baby calf.

The Elmwood Zoo brought one of their tigers. We were able to get fairly close. What a huge, majestic, glad it's behind a BIG cage, animal. No pangs in wanting this creature roaming my back yard.
They also had pony rides at the expo. I was actually surprised that Kamryn got on the pony. She had a lot of fun.
Avery is at the in-between age where she's too young to know that she is too old for a pony ride, and a bit too old for the actual pony ride. Once she got on it, I think she realized it was probably her last pony ride.