Happy Birthday, Luke!

McWane Your Brain

Last Sunday we took advantage of our membership and spent the afternoon at the McWane Center. Elliott loves the aquarium and as always he ran around like a crazy person in Itty Bitty Magic City. Marilyn taught him all about the art of putting and uncle Brett got his hair did in the wind tunnel.

Zoo, part deux

Yes, friends, we were back at the zoo this weekend. (Science museum members got in free on Saturday. And this family loves nothing more than getting stuff for free.) Elliott's Granna and his camel-riding Uncle Brett spent Friday through Monday with us (and Pop spent Friday night). We all had a wonderful time, but Elliott was EXHAUSTED. He slept from 1:30 until I woke him up at 5:10!

Is this sign really necessary?

How does he do that?

I know that red panda is in here somewhere.

This guy was particularly active on Saturday. We could hear him roar from a long way away.

The tiger was looking at Elliott like he was an appetizer.

Silly monkey

Sleepy monkey

So much fun it deserves its own post!

The zoo's splash pad was such a hit that it would have been just wrong to lump it in with the rest of the zoo. It earned the right to stand alone.

"Trust me, friend, I've seen this kind of thing before. The water's going to shoot out right here."

"See, I told you so!"

It's a zoo out there

Because the weatherman predicted a high temperature only in the low 90s today, we took advantage of the cold snap to go on Elliott's first trip to the zoo. He had so much fun that we stayed almost all day. He saw a sea lion show, rhinos, various large birds, and monkeys. (As you can see one of the monkeys was a big bully.)

We rode on a train around the zoo. (He liked it way more than the carousel. Now that's an unfortunate debacle that will not be repeated anytime soon.)

Then he walked away from the train station looking like a 20-year-old.

There were other kids to play with...

and cold-hearted snakes to pet. (He's fearless.)

Nothing phases this boy.

TINA!!!! (At least that's what Eric thought. All I could think of was that sweet/sad book Llama, Llama Misses His Mama.)

What's going on in there?

Zoo or not, when the clock strikes naptime, he's down.

Daddy continued to take pictures of other sleeping wildlife.

An all-around great day!

Fantastic 4th!

We had a wonderful 4th of July with Eric's family. The weekend was complete with nice weather, grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, swimming, and of course fresh strawberry pie!