A Well Timed Staycation

The last couple of weeks have been rough for me emotionally. After the initial shock of learning of my friend's death, I spent the week talking to mutual friends of ours to grieve together and also to some of my friends that helped me understand the pain that she must have been in to have been able to have taken her own life an leave her family behind. I can't say that I understand what happened all that well but I've come to grips with it more. The wake and funeral weren't until almost a week later....early last week. Going through the process of those rituals helped me to say goodbye. Not that I'll ever forget. I think of her constantly and realize more daily how many ways, both big and little, that she touched my life. I'll miss her dearly.
So, it was with great welcome and relief that a very happy distraction came into my life - a much anticipated visit from my brother and his family. His family of 5 were here for 4 days. While we packed a lot of activities into those 4 days (especially compared to our current pace of life with the new baby), we also took some time to just hang out and had some really great talks among adults as well as lots of play among the kiddos. It was just perfect. Of course, with so much fun comes lots of pictures and several blog posts. 
Jody's gang arrived very late Thursday night. We stayed up for just a bit talking but given their late arrival it was a late night. So we took it easy the next morning. The whole gang went for a long walk around our new neighborhood, had downtime while Dylan napped and then we spent the afternoon and one of our frequent jaunts - the zoo!
The summer weather we'd been having disappeared and in came some pretty cool spring days. That meant that some of the animals we were hoping to see weren't out. However, it didn't take much to please this group so we enjoyed ourselves and left only after we got kicked out at closing time having seen all the place had to offer.

Dyland on the Platapus

Joined by Cousins Presley and Ryker

Giddy Up!

Watched the Red Pandas Pace

Leopard

The Burch's Christmas Card?
Jody, Presley, Marcy, Ryker and Reece

Cousins Walking Hand in Hand

Extremely Cute Boys

Are you mocking me little girl?

Baby Lemur (on back of lemur in middle of picture)
Cutest Thing Ever!

Highlights of the trip were getting great views of the red pandas (who always seem to be in their house when we visit) and getting seriously grossed out watching the gorilla eat his own poo. With a nickname of Grody Jody (that he lives up to), Jody got a big kick out of the latter. Good times. Good times! It was a great start of their vacation and our staycation.