Am I NUTS?!!

Oh, most definitely YES.

But today even more so!

Several weeks ago, a good friend of mine asked me to watch over her future step-son, Sebastian, today. This was the only day she needed me, as she & her fiance were both working, and I had no problem whatsoever with doing so. Livie loves making new friends!

I had already decided that I was going to take him & Livia to the zoo today. I knew she really enjoys it, and what kid doesn't? What I didn't take into consideration is that today was forecast to be the hottest yet of the year!

So what were the actual temps?

Evansville's High Today: 100 degrees F
Heat Index: 107 degrees F !!!

So even though we got there right around 10:00 this morning, we were all sweating with minutes of our arrival. So it should come as no surprise that I let the kids do this:

Get Wet!!!

Mesker Park Zoo has an area just for kids that includes a jungle gym/slide, monkeys, otters, and (most importantly on days like today) a little water play area.

I could just see the looks of relief, and then of sheer joy on Livia & Sebastian's faces!

Livia loved getting surprised by the bursts of water.

She also loved 'tasting' the water... The Mom side of me was going, "Ung...! Ew-ish! Who knows if that water's even clean!!" But then my kid side argued, "Aw, come on. You'd be doing it too if you were in their shoes."

Shoot, if we were the only ones there, I probably would have been doing the same thing!

I literally had to drag Livia away kicking & screaming, even though she was absolutely drenched. I wanted to let the kids dry out just a bit before heading back home! So for the rest of our short visit, they were pretty comfortable it seemed...

While I could just feel the sweat dripping from my brow, back, and (ew!) forming a little river between my b-0-0-b-s (that's right, I don't want anyone Googling that word & landing here!) Thankfully there were a couple of cooled buildings that came to my rescue. Needless to say, we were outa there by 12:30!

But real quick - just a few pics of a couple of very friendly animals we saw while there...

A cute little otter

And a VERY friendly swan!

I don't know her name - or even if she has one for that matter... But I called her Sheila. :o) She ate animal crackers literally right out of my hand!

Which is how I got this great shot of her.

I'm sure we'll be going back to the zoo again soon... preferably when the weather's not fit for fryin' eggs outside! But definitely within the next month or so. I asked one of the workers while I was there if the Amazonia part of the zoo was nearly completed. And it's very close to being done...

So for all you out there who live in or around Evansville - Mesker Park Zoo will be opening it's brand new Amazonia section in 2 weeks!!! I'm SO excited!!!!

Hope everyone out there survived enjoyed this lovely Monday! Much love to you all & God Bless.


*Note - I didn't put any pics of Sebastian - Livie's new friend - on here since I didn't really ask if it was OK to do so... Even though I'm picture-crazy for my daughter, I promise I didn't leave him out!