Zoo Fun on Friday

Friday was Abby's last official day with us.  We really hope that after her stay with Grandma and Grandpa in DeLand she might end up somewhere close by, but right now we are just praying God's best and His will for her life.  And I am still putting in my own request in the manner :P but time will tell!
We decided to take Abby to the zoo, since she hadn't been there yet and it's one of our "go to" places here in Jax.  She seemed to enjoy it and we sure enjoyed having her company!  We saw many animals, and stayed longer than we usually do, but it was fun.  I guess that's one of the perks of Asher not napping much anymore- you don't have to be so strict with being home at a certain time.  Hannah is pretty easy and can shift her nap easier than Asher ever could!
Anyways, we had a blast showing her all of our favorite animals: the giraffes, jaguars, lions, elephants, rhinos, ostrich etc. and Asher got his wish of going on the choo choo train.  I thought he was going to melt down completely if we didn't get to go on it, so we made sure it happened!
It's really been a blessing to have had Abby at our house for 1.5 weeks.  She kept me company and made my days a bit less lonely, as it can get occasionally!  I feel like we have reconnected, which is awesome, since we haven't lived close to each other in the past bajillion years (I think since mid 2004??).  I am not good with the phone calls, and we did text often, but there's nothing like sitting and talking face to face!  Woohoo!
One of Abby's few requests while she was with me was to go to the beach for sunrise.  Asher and Hannah have become quite the early risers, much to this mama's chagrin (I am NOT a morning person), so Saturday morning Asher woke at 6am, and despite my best efforts he didn't go back to sleep, so off Abby, Asher and I went to the beach.  It was unfortunately cloudy but we did enjoy the time and Asher really was cute, singing and running around the beach.  Bliss!

Big Bird!

Booger, the GIANT tortoise

Miss Sassy Pants

I have never gone in any of the gift shops, for this reason below.  However, we had to go inside to get our ice cream, and as soon as we did Hannah grabbed this cute tiger and Asher became obsessed with a little manatee....sigh...out we walked with both stuffed animals along with our ice cream!  They both haven't put them down since...

Both kids in one pic for the second time that day- score!

Abby and Asher with the jaguar

Beach Fun (notice Asher's manatee that had to come along)

My favorite little boy feet

When I first got him out of the car he looked up and said "Look, it's a lemon!" referring to what the moon looked like.  He thought it was cool to still see the moon while we were watching the sunrise.  This little man loved the freedom of the beach.  He "played baseball" by "running the bases" and wanted me to run along as well.  We jogged quite a ways down the beach before turning around.  I was impressed!

With his Aunt Abby, whom he called Miss Abby up until literally the last day!  I think he gets the name confused with Ms. Abi, his babysitter!