The many faces of Nolan...

and McKenna!

Gabreski Airport

Papa took us to Gabreski Airport this afternoon, to see the airplanes and helicopters that we see flying over our house all the time. Nolan is in awe of them when they fly overhead, but was a little intimidated up close. We got to go inside the carrier and the helicopter, but Nolan is still talking about the glider being pulled by the airplane (a place in the airport offers glider rides)-the picture in the top center...of course, when they're going, they're much more interesting!

Holtsville Ecology Center

We finally got to the Holtsville Ecology Center this morning...and toured the park in record time! It's a small park, and we made short work of it: when the kids were out of the stroller, Nolan was running from cage to cage...then he had to get back in the stroller because he got a little out of control. Then as we looked at the animals, he kept urging "Let's go see something else!" We got to feed the goats (no picture of that, since I had to hold the kids' hands open for the goats to eat), and McKenna was particularly smitten with the recently-shaved llama...reminded me of the shaved white cat from Austin Powers (Mr. Biggelsworth). The kids got face-to-face with an emu drinking from his water tub (second from bottom right), which they thought was funny, and Nolan kept comparing animals to one another...so the emu "looks like a chicken" (I suggested ostrich, but he insisted it was like a chicken...oh well). And I was particularly amused with the fenced in cow (holstein heifer, actually-after careful inspection-the sign read cow/bull, so when I didn't immediately see the udder, I told Nolan it was a bull-oops! ...wouldn't want grandma and grandpa to think I'm teaching the children incorrect terminology)...but I was amused that it was behind two chain-link fences like the bear-guess they're taking extra precautions against mad cow disease on the island...wouldn't want the herd (1 cow) to charge (mosey toward) the crowd (5 people)! :) Sorry, the upstate came out in me just then!

At the Park Playground

After running around the animal habitats, we ran around the playground a little (actually, I got to sit on the equipment for a few minutes while they made this mess of wood chips on the slide-I actually thought to myself 'Go ahead, put wood chips on the slide...if it means I can actually sit for a minute...they'll wipe right off'). Nolan was less interested in actually playing on the equipment than playing with the wood chips...but he gets to play on a similar playground at school, so the novelty is lost on him. It still amazes me that McKenna is big enough to play on the playground by herself...she had a great time running up and down, and going down the slide all by herself. Man, they're getting big! One woman in the animal habitat was pushing a stroller with a boy (maybe 10 months old) and her dad was with her. They smiled as I wheeled Nolan and McKenna by in the stroller, and he said to her 'can you imagine?' and she said 'no way'... then I turned and told them that they aren't even twins-and she said 'close enough...I can't even imagine!' So that pretty much sums up my day... :)