The Northern New York Zoo Fiasco 2010, Part II

Welcome back to Heidi's Adventures in Animal Land. After the alpaca farm disaster, I decided to check out a zoo that I learned about online. (You would think I'd have learned by now...) You will be able to visit the link by clicking here - again, so you can see why I thought they looked legit... But I decided to call just in case - and they said that they were open for business.

Another 45 minute car ride - we were again talking about the people who were "not nice" at the alpaca farm and that I hoped this one would go better and that Amelia could see bears and monkeys and all kinds of fun animals. Yay!

We arrive and as I pull up I see this:

This isn't like any zoo I've ever seen... I am thinking to myself...

This is the view from the parking lot... I get Amelia out of the car and then Zoë and I am looking around wondering where everyone is... and a woman comes out and says, "Hi - we're sort of open." And I wanted to yell, "Are you flipping kidding me? I CALLED YOU YESTERDAY AND YOU SAID YOU WERE OPEN." But again, I have Amelia the sponge with me and don't, so I say, "Um, what do you mean?" She told me that they hadn't power washed the sidewalks and there wasn't anyone around. I said, "Can she at least see some animals?" And the woman said yes - so we went in.

Through this door:

Need a closer look?:

And yes, that small blue pool you see beyond the front gate is a pool of about 10 alligators.

And they still charged us FULL PRICE to enter. But at this point I didn't care, and I am wondering - are there seriously BEARS in this ghetto-like structure? It didn't take me long to realize that this "zoo" is one that would tug at my animal-loving heart strings because of the conditions.

So, we continue in (why I don't know). I didn't bring the camera in because I had forgotten it in the car - I actually thought of dashing the 5 feet back to get it... but good thing I didn't because there were chickens and peacocks roaming freely. Right by the alligator pen.

We get past the alligators and the woman working there gives us a visual tour and hands us a bag of food to feed the animals. (more on that later). Then comes my favorite part. She says, "So you can walk anywhere, but don't go into the pens (no kidding?) If you see an OPEN gate just shut it (WHAT????) Over there are the rabbits and you can go in there and you can also go in to pet the goats. If the goats are too frisky with you just grab them by the horns and push them away." "Uh, okay, I say," and in my head I am thinking Crazy Lady, we ain't goin' into ANY of these pens! If I can get my kid outta here in 5 minutes it'll be a freaking miracle!"

We begin our "tour" and head on down to see the bears - 5 of them in a 1200 square foot cage - my heart breaks. We go by them and see the monkeys which Amelia LOVES. I reach into the bag of food and pull out their "feed." Guess what it is? No you can't guess it - you never could: It's freaking HONEY NUT CHEERIOS. I was unaware that was a part of the native diet of wild animals. It is then that I realize the reality of this "zoo:" I think the people who own it and run it genuinely love the animals, but they have a complete lack of education and understanding about appropriate animal conditions. That makes me even more sad - I don't think they're bad folks, they're just not that smart. So we kept on walking - we saw lions, camels, ostriches (ostrichi? ostrich?) goats, swans (also roaming freely, aren't they supposed to be mean... we steered clear), a fox, and other rare animals.... But I was ready to go and convinced Amelia that it was time for the animals naps and so we left....

In the future I need to take a cue from my youngest and be more skeptical, like she is of her Grammie in this picture:


As we pulled out, Amelia said, "I loved that, Mommy! I saw monkeys!" Which makes me very happy - but we're not ever going back there!

The Northern New York Zoo Fiasco 2010, Part I

While at Lake George last week, I decided to try and investigate fun activities for the girls. Normally we are there in the summer so we don't need to do anything other than swim... but there wasn't any of that after it got cold, so I needed some ideas. This attempt at fun will henceforth be referred to as The Northern New York Zoo Fiasco 2010.

We would have been better off taking Amelia's suggestion and playing in boxes all day:

Our first attempt was to visit the Gore Mountain Alpaca Farm:

http://www.goremountainfarm.com/

I am including the link so that you can be sure (if you care) to see why I thought it would be a good idea AND to be sure that you NEVER visit.
Reasons why I thought this was a good idea:
1. They have pictures of children with alpacas on their website.
2. They say they LOVE children visiting on their website.
3. They have a good looking website which tells me (I think) that they are more than just a random farm.

WRONG.

We arrived after a 45 minute drive and me talking to Amelia about how much fun we were going to have and how much she was going to love the alpacas. There is a HUGE "OPEN" sign out front.

BAD IDEA

We get out of the car. Anyone who has ever had a toddler and an infant will know what a production this is. Zoë is in her stroller and Amelia has her shoes, her coat, and her hat on. We are ready for what I think will be at least a half hour of fun outside.

WRONG.

We start walking towards the alpacas and the woman working there says rather snippily, "Can I HELP you?" In my head I am thinking I must be imagining that rude tone; this is a farm for kids... So I say, "No thank you were are just going to walk around." To which she replies, "We don't really encourage that." HUH? I just stood there with a dumbfounded looked on my face. Really? You don't encourage walking around? What about your freaking website, you stupid b!t#*.

No, I didn't really say that - I had Amelia, a.k.a. the sponge who repeats everything we say. "Uhhh, okay, well can we just look at the alpacas from the driveway?" She sighed like she was insanely annoyed and then walked into the caged area and started to feed the animals - who , by the way, were super cute.

Now I'm wondering, how do I let down this 2 year old who has been so excited to see the "llamas." So, I bend down and say, "Well, here they are, Amelia! I am sad that we can't get closer because that lady is not being nice; some people just aren't nice." To which she replies, "Why?" Ughhhhhhhh. I am not the kind of "make sweet stories up for my kids" kind of parent, so I always try to be honest with her. But this is the first time that honesty has meant she is going to be let down. I just want to protect her and make her world so happy - this was the first time I really felt like she realized that everything isn't always love and ducks.

I finally decide that I am super uncomfortable and that I need to listen to my "safety radar" and get the hell outta there. We go back to the car - I load up the girls - again, anyone who has ever had a toddler and an infant knows what an ordeal this is - and Amelia is screaming and I end up wrestling her into it and said, 'Mommy is very uncomfortable here and we need to leave.' She finally settled down and I peeled out of there faster than a Nascar driver...

Stay tuned for Part II. If you can imagine that there is a Part II... the car ride home was long and full of me having to explain over and over and over again that "sometimes people just aren't nice."

Family time

Just some fun random pictures.

Daddy and his girls.

Mom and Amelia

Amelia is insanely interested in "helping" Grammie with her birthday cake...

Amelia on her nature walk one afternoon at Lake George.

More beautiful pictures

I fear being disowned by several family members who are likely experiencing severe jealousy looking at all of my Lake George pictures - but I can't resist!

I woke up one morning and the lake had this amazing fog on it. It reminded me of this Donald Murray poem:

Fog

Fog hangs in treetops
Inhaling the tang
of low tide.
And leaves
like witches brew
in morning sunshine.

More fun with leaves

Remember this? October 2008

Here we are today! October 2010

Even more adorable...

Beautiful fall pictures at Lake George

We are still playing catch-up from our fun Fall-extravaganza at Lake George last week. The photo ops were amazing.

Amelia at the top of the mountain behind our house - she loves to go on hikes with her daddy!

Our leaf princess

I told her to "play with the leaves and look cute" - here is what we got :)

Mom and her girls - and Yoda's backside.

Amelia was totally done with taking pictures - I said "smile one more time!" and this is what I got.

3 months!

a few days after her arrival.

August 14, 2010

September 14, 2010

October 14, 2010

What's in a name?

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet... - Romeo & Juliet 2.2

...but not our Zoë - we think she already fits her beautiful name perfectly. I have been meaning to write about this forever, but am just getting to it now!

Zoë Winter. There is a good story behind her name.

Zoë:
This was Tom's pick. It's a name I never would have chosen but love completely. He is a fan of J.D. Salinger and liked Zooey from Franny & Zooey. He also loved the fact that her name would start with a "Z" - not many people can say that. I loved it even more when I learned that in Greek it means "Woman full of life." I was happy with it but didn't want to spell it with a "y" because I feared people would call her Zoo-y. We then had to think about the umlaut (the 2 dots over the "e"). When we learned that phonetically, without the umlaut it would be Zoe (as in Snow), as an English teacher I could not allow my child to have a name that is spelled differently from its phonetic pronunciation. And thus, we arrived at Zoë!

Winter:
This is the more sentimental name. Our next door neighbor / grandfather figure at Lake George was Winter Horton. I (Heidi) have known and loved him since I was about 5 years old. He was always loving and supportive of me and interested in my life regardless of my age. He was funny, thoughtful, and passionate about his family, politics, and his wooden boats. When Tom came into my life, Winter was supportive and immediately loving towards him as well. As a result, we both adored him. One week after I found out I was pregnant with Zoë we learned that Winter had died. We probably would have used his name regardless, but it felt even more fitting as a result. Below is a picture of Winter with his wife, Carol - she died 52 days after he died; they were married for 52 years (I think that's the right number... I may be off by one or two).
We are so excited to know that Zoë will carry Winter's name with her wherever she goes -- we cannot imagine a more fitting way to honor him than to give our Zoë, "Woman Full of Life," his name, too.

Swimming in October

When we first arrived at the lake, it was still summer-like. Fall colors but a warm temperature, so Amelia asked to go swimming.

Yoda was thrilled to be back and did not care about the water temperature.

Amelia mostly splashed around because the water was pretty cold. But she still had fun...

Beautiful colors!

Zoë's first injury

In exciting news for Mommy, it was Daddy who first injured Zoë - it was Mommy who first injured Amelia. We are now even. Last weekend they were having some baby bjorn time and Tom still isn't sure what happened, but she got some good looking scratches on her face...

...but is still smiling.

We've been at Lake George for the last week loving the beautiful Fall weather and have beautiful pictures to share - so we will do one post per day to catch up - stay tuned on Monday for Lake George Post 1.

Lawn Maintenance

Instead of making Amelia sit through her great-grandmother's funeral last month (actually, a month ago today) we decided to set her up with a playdate with her best buddy, Michael.

When she got there Michael was still sleeping, but when he woke up she was sure to climb right into bed with him for some waking up cuddles.

Then she went outside to earn her keep. She started by weed-whacking the Barry's backyard.

Then she mowed the lawn...

And then the two of them tackled a tough area that needed both mowing and whacking.

Zany for Zoë!

All Zoë

I couldn't come up with a good alliterative phrase for Zoë like I did with Amelia. If anyone has a suggestion starting with a "Z" let me know.

How can you even attempt to resist this face?????????

Carl strikes again!