From the West side to the East side

Starting with the WEST side of the state, we celebrated our cousin's wedding in Kalamazoo on Saturday. They got married at the Gilmore Theater on WMU's campus. The ceremony took place on the second floor in front of floor to ceiling windows overlooking the campus. Then the reception was ON stage. They did a great job decorating. I wish I had more pictures to share, but we forgot the camera so these shots are what I was able to get with my mom's camera. It was a great time catching up with friends and family and we're so happy that Haeli is now officially part of the family.

The Courter's. The happy newlyweds and Bryon's family.

My beautiful momma, hubby and bro.

Travis and mom cuttin' a rug.

OMG! We actually got a decent picture of the two of us. I think that the only reason that this was acheiveable was because we didn't have the kids with us. :) They're just so darn cute that they steal the show when they're around so we never think to take pictures of us as a couple.

A fun surprise of the evening was reuniting with our former tee-ball team. The Expos unofficially celebrated their 25th reunion with the coach! Here we are posing for a "TEAM" picture.

On Sunday (Father's Day), we made our way to the East side of the state to the Detroit Zoo. If you've never been, I would highly recommend it. I enjoyed it more than the Toledo Zoo (although its a great zoo too). We thought it'd be fun to celebrate Father's day by taking Russ and my dad to the zoo and it turned out to be a great day. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time exploring all of the animals that they'd only ever seen in books. Here are some pictures of some animals that we saw.

Benn standing in front of the kangaroos. I think they were his favorite even though we didn't see them hopping. Instead they just laid there and Benn did the hopping.

Peacock and baby chicks. These birds were attempting to walk across the path where we were walking! Talk about an up close encounter! The baby chicks were a favorite of Avah's but she got skiddish when the momma peacock started to spray her feathers as if to say, "Give us some room, we want to cross here."

Checking out the dinosaur exhibit. Benn was so excited to see the dinosaurs that he kept ROARing, but once we got there and he saw how big they were he got a bit scared and needed Daddy protect him.

Ginormous rhino! Look how close we were! The kids thought the rhino was silly because it was scratching its hind end on this pole. I'll admit, it was funny seeing a rhino shaking it back and forth.

The most stunning giraffes ever...beautiful.

We saw this beautiful duck while we were crossing a bridge and all of a sudden appeared a turtle too! I think Benn can now finally understand the difference between a frog and a turtle. For what ever reason, he confused the two before. Seeing them in person must help!

A highlight for Russ and I was the seal aquarium. You can view them from above or go below in an enclosed tunnel and watch them swim all around you. This seal inparticular was showing off her skills by blowing bubbles and flapping her fins at us.

Happy Father's day Russ!

On the train. We took the train to the back of the park (on the way we saw various animals) then worked our way back to the front of the zoo. We figured this way the kids wouldn't get so tired and we'd still be able to see the majority of the animals.