The Adventures of Bokeh the Ragdoll: Day One

I'm a member of a photography forum... I'm a bad member in the sense that I'm terrible at responding and starting my own posts, but I love the forum because the photographers are all really supportive of one another, and they're a wealth a knowledge. One member created Bokeh. Bokeh is a ragdoll. She's traveling around the globe to all the photographers on our forum... each photographer is adding an article of clothing to her, and then photographing her around their hometown. Once Bokeh's traveled around and makes it back to the beginning, the head of this is going to auction her for breast cancer research. It's a pretty cool project!

Bokeh is in Ohio right now! That's right, I have Bokeh. So, in the bizarre-ness that is me, the rest of this post is going to be from Bokeh's perspective.

So I arrived in Ohio on Saturday night. So far I've been to Florida, New Hampshire, and Maine. On Father's Day, the Nesser family took me to the Columbus Zoo. According to them, Jack Hanna loves this zoo, and it's kind of a big deal.

I got ready, and rode in the car with Olivia.


This is us at the entrance


The big deal right now is Polar Bears. I guess the Columbus Zoo just built a whole area just for Polar Bears. When we got to the polar bear entrance, I saw this sign


WHAT?! Are there polar bears just roaming around?!!? Well, we found these statues. Claire had taken over guiding me around, and her and I rode the smaller bear

Turns out there aren't polar bears just wandering around... but there is a glass wall where you can see polar bears swimming over you. Claire showed me the bears above us, but I was still a little freaked out that they might get me.








The Nesser girls are learning about taking turns, so Olivia guided me to the flamingoes.


Flamingoes are Heather's favorite part of the Zoo, because they're really close, and are always out. I could see why she likes them...


...until the ones behind me started fighting! They get really big, and bite at each other... I was ready to go


The aquarium is the girls' favorite part of the zoo. Personally, I liked the sea horses... just my size!


Claire's turn to guide again... she and I are buddies now.




It was a hot day, and I was ready to head home. The girls wanted to play on these warthog statues. I asked if I could just sit on the bench and watch. Luckily for me, the girls were fine with that.


Day one in Ohio has been a lot of fun!

Lets all go to the Zoo!

My family is definitely getting our bang for our buck when it comes to our zoo pass this year. This week alone we've gone 2 times... the month of March we went four times. I'm pretty excited about this (I love a bargain - and going to the zoo tons of times with a pass is most definitely a bargain!)

This was the longest time my girls have ever spent at the zoo. We went with Grandma Karen, Haley and Jessica was in town for Easter. We ended up meeting up with the neighbors, so all in all we were a big group. And we were there for over five hours. That's right. Five hours. I knew ahead of time it would be a long trip, and I worried that the girls wouldn't make it - but they did really surprisingly well!! I'm a little proud of them!

Before we left, Jessica braided Claires hair. I (selfishly) with Jessica lived here and could braid Claires hair every day, because it was incredibly cute, and kept her hair out of her eyes all day long!


This trip was definitely the most exciting for the girls in a while, and mostly because the animals were so active! I don't know if it was the heat, or the fact that all of Columbus was at the zoo that day, but the animals were out and moving around like crazy!

The first big animal show... the tiger. Normally the tigers aren't close to the glass. They're far away, lounging below rocks. Today the tiger was pacing the line of the glass, like he was mad about something. He'd periodically dunk himself into the water, and then go back to pacing. He was so big, and so close, that Olivia got completely freaked out, and stood behind me bawling until we left. Claire, however, thought the big kitty was cool.

Thats the tigers head, next to Claires head

The next big exciting place... the flamingoes! Even they were super active - fighting amoungst each other, and coming really close to the fencing.




Jessica and Karen were practically hanging over the fence to get pictures of the flamingoes (Jessica got the best picture ever - I'm very jealous) until a docent came up and warned us that that flamingoes would, in fact, take your phone from you.




Look how close Karen was!! This was when the docent came up to us.


Of course the aquarium was awesome as always. I got a cool shot of seahorses


I have way too many photos to share, but if you fan me on facebook, you can see them all. At this point we all took pictures with Hannas green glasses... they're some funny pictures :)

We ended with the gorilla's. Now I'll be honest... the girls have only seen the gorilla's one other time. The gorilla's are in the back of the zoo, and I hate walking back that far, especially given that the girls never ask to see them. Though that'll probably change now... Claire LOVES the gorilla's. I had bought her a stuffed manatee back in the aquarium, and she showed it to all the gorillas. She and Donna went around to all the windows, just looking at them all.


And when I came up to take a picture of Claire with a gorilla, I couldn't help but laugh at how pleased as punch she was so be in a picture with him


Before we left, we got some Dippin Dots. This is, by far, my favorite picture from the day. The girls had been so good, and here's Claire, obviously incredibly hot, just chillin with her ice cream.




And of course, this was the scene when we pulled up in our driveway. Claire with her manatee, Olivia with her new platypus




Everyone should get out and enjoy the zoo!! Polar Bears are coming in less than a month!!

lets start playing catch-up

If you follow me on facebook, you've seen that I'm editting like a fiend! I really am too - and making a huge dent in all the sessions I've had, plus the 365. I can't believe how many days I have to post from that (to give you an idea, today is day 244... remember that when you see what number I post today!) Well talking about how far behind I am isn't going to catch me up any, so here goes!!

218 of 365: Lets go to the zoo

One of the photographers on a message board I belong to happened to come to Ohio (she was visiting from Wisconsin) and we met up at the zoo. It was a lot of fun, though my kids melted down at the sight of everyone elses food. I shoulda seen that coming though.

219 of 365: Don't even try to cheer me up

Claires napping badly. Don't come over around 1pm.

You saw 220 in the last post.

221 of 365: Pretty Portraits

Why oh why do I attempt to have sessions with the girls?? Cookies... tongues... a rubber sheep... yep makes for a great portrait of the girls.

222 of 365: Now thats a portrait!

I wanted to practice before Kristins senior session (where I knew she wanted studio pics) and for whatever reason, Olivia cooperated. Sure she was in pj's, but when the opportunity knocks, by golly you answer that door!! Here's another from the session


223 of 365: Oh what sleep deprivation does to us

Not sure why I took this image, but I do remember that I snapped it right before going to bed.

224 of 365: Thats some mean hair Lady!

Obviously from before the haircut. Luckily her hair doesn't really do this anymore.

a pirate says "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

Every year, I buy a zoo pass. We don't go too terribly often, but we're guarenteed to go twice a year.. and according to their propaganda (and math,) thats enough times to go for the pass to pay for itself. We always go to see the Holiday Lights, and we always go to Boo at the Zoo.

I'm one of those weird moms that loves to make their children match. I think it stems from my hatred of being matched to my sister growing up... but dang-it if its not cute as heck. This year, Olivia is a pirate. She'll proudly tell you exactly what a pirate says if you ask her. She spent the entire zoo trip running, so I don't have the best of photos of her costume just yet. But she had so much fun.

In an effort for matching, we had Claire go as a parrot. Apparently, there's a shortage of parrot costumes in the market right now. But lucky for me, Parents magazine had an article on how to make a no-sew one (its essentially a poncho and a tail) I sewed mine, just because I know how destructive my children are (yes even the little one.) She was pretty dang cute.

And because I can't leave him out - my nephew Aiden was just adorable in his Tyrone costume!