Vacation Part Two: Columbus

Lisa's off to San Antonio, so I'm doing part two. We spent three days and two nights in Columbus, staying at Nick and Beth's. Here are the highlights:

The girls and Uncle Nick do "a funny one" on the front porch:

A big highlight for the girls (OK, and me too) both here and at Greg and Katelyn's in Lexington was playing Wii. Mostly, they played Mario Kart (I played LEGO Star Wars), and both of them improved their skills considerably over the week.


We spent one day at the Columbus Zoo. Nick came with us. We were very impressed, as the layout of the zoo and the animal exhibits are very well done. It was good fun. Here Jake points at the black rhino and says "Kitty!":

The girls get close to the penguins:

Lisa and Jake on the boat ride through the Pacific Islands loop of the zoo:

Abby and one of the many gorillas:

Other zoo highlights: the manatees, a roaring lion, elephants, Chinese food for lunch (so much nicer than a cruddy old hot dog again), and great weather for the whole day.

We also met the newest member of the Dekker family while we there. Here the girls hold their new cousin:


And here's probably the best picture we could get of the four Dekker grandkids (to be outdated in about two months), taken at the park whose name I can't think of:

Overall, it was a great trip - we hit North Market, and Lisa went to Trader Joe's for the first time too. The ride home was relatively smooth, too - or, as much as it can be with kids this age. The highlight on the way home was stopping at a rest area that was highly populated with cats.

Now Abby's begging for breakfast, so this must end.