I totally did NOT realize that I had not posted a blog entry last night until well after I had gone to bed. It has been quite the weekend. My birthday is on Monday so I did attempt some pre birthday fun (attempt as weather interacted negatively to either cancel or alter plans) but even more so… I am sure that most of my readers are aware that I am originally from Canada, Alberta in fact… this has been a rough weekend for Southern Alberta. My brother James and his family (Holly and Jimmie) live in Calgary as do many of my Reinsch family relatives. Thankfully all in the higher portions of the city. Likewise my friends Esther, Kathy, Bianca… all safe and relatively dry. Starting late Thursday a flash flood warning went out for Calgary and area… It was much more extreme than expected (rain on the mountains facilitating melt). The city of High River is basically underwater as is Black Diamond I am told. Other towns have also been affected. 

Calgary has been hit hard. Downtown (which is where my brother works) is shut down, underwater and without power… Stampede grounds (Stampede is in 2 weeks) are also underwater… the zoo is looking at 2 weeks closure to fix the mess they are faced with, though there have been no animal losses. There has been 3 confirmed losses of life, thankfully there was some signs so people were able to start evacuating in time. BUT there is always the chance of a surge of water or a dam giving up. Add to that Medicine Hat (where my Aunty Becky and Uncle Lyle live) going under flood warning and it has been a round time all round in southern Alberta. 

It is very surreal to see locations we had previously considered renting in (before the big move here) now underwater… to realize that that could have been us! Not only do I feel very grateful that my family are safe, friends sound but I am equally aware that we really are where we need to be here in Minnesota. Although we too were under a flash flood and storm warning Friday night… my brother in law Joe and his family have downed branches and their neighbourhood has seen worse. Power has been off for AGES! 

If you are able to help HERE is a list of drop offs and ways to financially donate to help all the different people (and animals) who are in need after the flooding… Thanks to Huffington Post. Life is not going to go back to normal in these areas any time soon… again I am just thankful that for the most part everyone is ok… and saying a prayer that this is the end of the flooding and wonky weather! 

Picture thanks to Roman Sotelo (HERE is his Facebook page)

As promised… the extra pics from our trip to the zoo. It was an overcast day but it worked out so well for our group. Enjoy…

This is one of my favourite butterflies.. with the blue wings inside.

A waterfall in the dinosaur section. I do love running water.

PENGUINS, chunky penguins

And then of course there is the cute baby picture… who can resist those?

My bitty baby

I am also a sucker for plants…

I love the contrast of the white flowers with the black butterfly

This one was in the pond in the middle of the butterfly sanctuary

Who doesn’t like the clean beauty of white orchids?

Love the pink centers on these

And to end the zoo addition…

A very lovely butterfly

Now for the BIG excitement for the week… a trip to the CALGARY ZOO!!! You read that correctly… Kathy, myself and my girls at one of the best zoos in Canada. The last time we went here was when Emanuel was a tiny baby! A LOT has changed!! First off, 5.00 fee for parking! We parked in the Tiger lot! Trinity thought that was cool.

At the zoo

One of the amazing entrance statues

It took a little pre planning and organizing but we managed to get to the zoo when it opened at 10, pay our admission (ouch! even with a coupon) and get going. Apparently quite a few schools figured it was a good day for a trip to the zoo as well so it was a little busy. BUT we managed to see everything we wanted to and really enjoy a rather perfect day. 

Ready to see and do...

We started with the penguins. That is, the ones you could see from outside the main exhibit. The wait when we got there and when we were leaving was well over 30 min and the penguins that were visible from right past the entrance of the zoo were exciting enough for our two little ones.

PEGUINS

Of course we had to take pictures in front of the exhibit sign too… it was just too cute.

Me, my girls and the nifty penguin statues

We decided to bypass the North American exhibit (umm can see most of that ANY time) and the dinosaurs (new exhibit but lots of walking AND we had the wrong “e” named child with us for it). Instead we headed right over the bridge (what a high water level there is right now!) and onto the African exhibit… we needed to get in our lion time (though really all we got to see was a VERY well groomed head)…

Lion

The tortoise on a walk was much more rewarding!

Tortoise

Though the renegade peacock was more exciting…

Peacock

And the visiting sparrow… we figure he was there for the same reason we were… a little zoo culture! 

Another visitor

Let’s see what else was there? Of course Trinity had to pore over that map and choose the animal shapes that interested her the most!

Master map readers

Oh and lots and lots of flamingos, an unexpected find! And pink to boot… 

Trinity and the flamingos

We had to stop for a hot dog along the way… just a snack to tide the girls until we got our lunch break. Of course that was coupled with a potty break. 

Munchies

We HAD TO see the elephants, Trinity was emphatic about that. 

Elephants

There was also the last remaining dinosaur from the original dinosaur exhibit to check out. Trinity was quite interested in what seemed to be a hole in its neck. Apparently it is a historical landmark now. 

Huge!

Trinity was very intrigued by the train that was NOT a real train… a part of the children’s area it ran out on the walkways without a rail. She was certain that that was NOT the way it should be! 

Train that is not a train according to Trinity

We also saw the red panda… a favourite of Karyn and mine! 

Pandariffic

And a goat with the neatest curly horns!

Very curly

Oh and I got a close up of a second roving peacock…

Another peacock

Lunch was a bit of a rushed affair with two slightly cranky kids but it was totally yummy and gave us enough energy to see our last exhibit. My favourite exhibit was the butterflies. It is way bigger than when I went as a child and still a lovely place. Though with all the children in from school trips the butterflies were not landing very often. Trinity had to check out the pond in the middle of course. 

Cutie

Butterfly

And another

On the way out we had to take a picture on the pink light… All in all I think we spent around 4 hours out and by the end of it we were ALL ready for a nap… so… we did!!!

Pink

I got the boys each a pencil and we got a special postcard to share… and then each of the girls got a little kitty teddy… so we did really good with our shopping as well.

Now post nap we had ANOTHER exciting activity planned – dinner with Esther! At HER place! This was our first visit there AND our first dinner cooked by the lovely Esther. Both were wonderful. We caught up, hung out and generally spent some wonderful girly time together. Trinity even had her nails done AGAIN! Spoiled!

Esther in the kitchen

Painting nails

The girls

So that was one of our best days in the city… not only did we see some of our favourite critters but managed to corner the elusive Esther in her natural habitat. With a promise of a repeat visit! Seriously this week was an eye opener. I have missed these people. 

Late night boardgame with Kathy and Neko

The most interesting fact we could find about hippos

And the hippos who live it