Our old stomping grounds.

Our quickie trip to MI was fantastic and really whetted our appetite to spend a great deal more time up there this summer!!! Our first day back we met up with our dear friend, Vida. She was the person who introduced Bruce and I and has been such an important long term friend to both of us. It was great to hang out with her and her daughter, Julia. It was a beautiful spring day so after a fantastic lunch in Ferndale, we headed to the zoo.

Griffin and I use to come to the zoo ALL THE TIME when we lived in the area. It brought back a flood of memories of my little guy as a toddler and all the amazing times we had there together and with friends. It was a fun afternoon!!!

It was fun to also experience it anew with Lucy and Julia. Lucy is in that super animal obsessed stage right now, so everything from feeding the ducks to the huge rhinos were equally exciting to her.

Those lumps in the grass behind the kids are kangaroos (Shout out Holly!!!! Made us think of you, big time!)

Guess who was trying to get into the zebra pen??

You can count on the chimps to keep things lively. If you are having a tough time sticking with a diet, give Griffin a call. He would love to tell you a story about the chimps that will keep your appetite at bay for a good long while!!! ;)

Griffin makes friends everywhere he goes, but really caught the interest of an adorable girl named Sophie who was lucky enough to experience the chimps with him. Sooooo cute!

I am frustrated with myself that I didn't pull out the camera to make a Markle family portrait...but I didn't. Too busy dealing with 2 cranky kids that were WAY off their schedule, had ran at the zoo for 5 hours and were expected to act nicely at the 2ND restaurant they had to endure that day. I was feeling just the tiniest bit frazzled by the time we met up with Vida's hubs, Matt for dinner that night. Loved being able to enjoy time with these dear friends though, and looking forward to the next opportunity.