Father's Day (early)

Daddy works a lot on weekends, but not as much during the week. That's how he can take me to and from day care each day. But today he wanted to celebrate Father's Day a little early, since he will be in the ER this Sunday. So daddy took the day off from work and kept me home from school.

Sweet!

We said goodbye to Mommy as she left for work and feasted on my new favorite breakfast, yogurt, while daddy enjoyed some bananas and granola. We took care of my puppy sisters and headed out the door. We couldn't go down the hill on Kimball becuase the Iowa river has overflowed its banks and now completely covers Dubuque Street, blocking the lower end of our street. I will write more about the floods later this week, becuase the river is expected to crest monday. We should get some more amazing photos as the water gets even higher.

The first stop on our grand day out today was the Coralville resevior and the source of all the flooding. Since the dam was built in 1958, the water has cleared the emergency spillway only once: in 1993. Now, the water is about to go over it again. We saw it when it was very, very close. (the water has cleared the spillway at 9pm, June 10th, as of this writing)

Then we went on to the Raptor Center to see my beloved owls. It was a pleasant walk through the forest to the center and we got to see owls, hawks, and eagles. My favorites were the barres owl and the bald eagle. They both called out when we approached the cage, which made me smile.

After visiting the birds, we drove to the Coralville mall and ate chicken sandwiches for lunch. I surprised daddy by sucking down the chicken eagerly. I really haven't liked chicken much before, but there was something about this sandwich that was just perfect. And I washed it down with lemonade, another new discovery that I love.

From lunch we went to the Children's Museum, conviniently located in the mall. We bought a membership so daddy or Gran can bring me back any time. In the front hall, they have this painted turtle (main photo). He's a lot more active than the colorful turtles I have in my bath every night. I thought he was very cool. Did you know I can actually say, "turtle"? Its true!

The museum was lots of fun. Our favorite room by far was the physics display. They had ramps we could run golf balls down and over jumps. And a giant roller coaster for the golf balls. And a pinewood derby race ramp. And the largest wooden train playset I have ever seen. WOW! I kept asking daddy to roll the ball down the ramp. "More, more!" I said using baby sign language.

The rest of the museum was pretty cool. There is a fairy tale castle puppet theatre, a mock up farm with a really fun slide, and a special exhibit on dinosaurs. I can't wait to go back!

After all this excitement, I crashed pretty hard when we got back to the car. When I woke up I got the best surprise of all: daddy had picked up mommy from work while I was sleeping and she joined us at home for a snack.

YAY!