"Lucky Smiles" Day at the zoo

On August 25th, we attended the Lucky Smiles Day at the zoo. Lucky Smiles is a group of people and families affected by Craniofacial disorders. This support group was founded by a woman, Kelly Luckey, who's son Cody, was born with CL/CP. She has done a great deal to help people with craniofacial disorders and their families get information, provide lists of doctors that specialize in Craniofacial disorders and lobby the government to push for better insurance coverage for those affected. I became a member and also a pathfinder. A Pathfinder is a person who would assist another in finding information and to support other families new to the craniofacial disorders world.
The day was filled with fun and the kids loved the animals. It was also good for Max and Sonja to see other children with CL/CP.
The Amazon parrot above was the first animal we had seen..... and guess what his name was....MAX!
Below is a few pictures of the day.

Sonja, Max and Daddy standing in front of the giant aquarium.

Max and Sonja looking at the penguins. Sonja wanted sooooo badly to pet the penguins. Sonja LOVES penguins. This little penguin kept swimming really close to the glass, almost as if he wanted to get petted too!

Little penguin's Max and Sonja

Sonja saw the tigers and wanted to pet them too!!!!! We told her that they are not like on the cartoons and would bite her...... so she decided she would settle for this one

I thought I would give Sonja and Max some lesson's on milking a cow complete with the ol squirt the "milk" in the face trick. They kept wanting me to do it to them again, .........kids.

This, as you can see, is a wooden cow and inside is a water bladder with tubing going down to the teet. Sonja and Max did succeed at doing it after a few tries.

Sonja fine tuning her "milking" the goat skills.

Max and Sonja looking at a huge saltwater aquarium.

What are you thinking about Sonja? Possibly being a mermaid? :-)

After visiting with all of the zoo animals, we were talking with Kelly and it started to downpour. The kids....being kids........ headed right out into the pouring rain.

Yeah!!!!!! Puddles!!!!!!!

Max soaking wet and lovin' it!

Max, Sonja, Cody and his little brother playing in the puddles after the rain.

It was a great day.

We later found out that Max and Sonja's pictures were featured on the website!! Pretty cool.