Henrietta Hippo

Back in April, on a trip to Costco, Mikayla and I saw some pool pets, essentially big animals you can float on in the pool.  There was an alligator, a turtle, a frog, and a hippo.  Now I sort of consider a hippo to be my spirit animal.  They are chubby, short tempered, have big mouths, and like to float about in the water.  See?  Spirit animal.  So when we saw the hippo on the box, we knew we had to have it.  Thing was, there wasn't a hippo in either huge box.  I know because I dug deep to find one.

That's my bum.

We put the other three animals in the cart, and when we were done shopping, we went to the customer service desk and asked Robin to call a few local Costcos and see if they had a hippo.  No luck.  Mikayla thought a hippo pool petz would be the perfect birthday gift for me, so when she got home, she called nearly 30 Costcos.  She called every Costco in Utah, then a bunch in Arizona where Christopher and family were for spring break, she called Costcos in California where her sister-in-law lives, and she even called the Pool Petz manufacturer.  No luck.  She could not find a hippo.  Apparently, they didn't make very many of them, so most boxes didn't have them.  Every time we've been back to Costco and seen them, we've looked through the boxes, hoping somehow we'd find one.

While we really wanted a hippo, Cora loved the frog.

She carried it around the store the day we bought it,

then napped with it that day.

Today, while at Costco, there appeared to be two new boxes, full to the top, with potential to have a hippo.  We looked again.  While I dug through one box, Blythe dug through the other, and guess what?!  Blythe found one!!  It was at the very bottom and there was only one, but it was there!!  Yahoo!!!!  I called across the store to Mikayla who shrieked loudly in excitement and took my picture.  

Our hippo hunt is at an end.

Cora carted the hippo around the store, held it all the way home, and napped with it that day.  But when we all went to swim in the afternoon at Grandma Sue's house, the hippo came, too.  Christened Henrietta, our hippo makes a nice addition to the pool.