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We Went to the Zoo!

Despite the pandemic, I had a wonderful Father's Day weekend.

On Saturday I took my daughter for a long morning walk and then grilled burgers for my family in the afternoon. Despite the forecast predicting thunderstorms all afternoon, the weather seemed to work around our plans by only raining for a bit after the morning walk, while we ate dinner under the protection of our outdoor umbrella, and while we spent some time inside the house to digest before going back outside for s'mores over our new fire pit.

On Sunday my partner surprised me with my favorite breakfast (eggs benedict), a few gifts, and the fact that she'd reserved us a time to visit the zoo in the afternoon. As everyone who reads this blog is aware, the Milwaukee County Zoo was perhaps the thing I missed the most about the pandemic shutdown and I was really, really excited to hear that it would be opening up with new safety precautions. Not only was it a fun place to spend an hour or two last year, but our daughter absolutely loved it so it was a delight to watch her enthuse over all the beautiful animals. I was absolutely giddy at the thought of going with her now that she's nearly 20 months old.

I think the look on her face as she sits next to the giraffe enclosure while holding her own stuffed giraffe says all that needs to be said about how much fun that visit was.
To cap it all off, we then went to my in-law's house to celebrate father's day and a birthday with them and enjoy a dinner of ribs and a delicious homemade chocolate mint cake.

Oh yeah, and my father-in-law started replacing the old windows around our house with the new ones we had bought last year, so I also got to have the pleasure of breaking the old ones with a hammer to make them fit in our trash bin, which is its own kind of fun.


In addition to all of this, I'm also happy to report that Wisconsin's new COVID-19 cases seem to still be slowing down, though the numbers continue to rise across the country due to our terrible leadership on the national level. While I wish my being able to go to the zoo was a sign that this is all soon coming to a close, we still have a lot of work to do and a long way to go before this pandemic is over in the USA.

Stay healthy and sane!
-Ryan
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