Noah VBS

We spent two days of spring break at church learning about Noah. We did paintings, chalk drawings, sang, went to the zoo and the humane society. Jessie even came one day!

Penguins!!!

We went with Mimi and Poppy to see the new penguins at the zoo!












And a marmoset on a zookeeper's head...





And alligators...











But especially penguins!!





















































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Zoo!

Aunt Pet renewed out LR Zoo membership for Christmas! Thanks, Aunt Pet!

Gabi dressed for the occasion in tiger jacket and cheetah leggings.

We saw the naked mole rats, but none of them were getting dressed.

The lions put on a show for us- roaring and jumping on each other, then posing stoically for pictures.

Gabi invested a quarter to get a closer view of the rhino.

"We match!"

Micah brought his year-old camera.

He kept needing a lift to get a good shot.

But being as high as the giraffes made him a bit nervous.

We can't wait for the real penguins to get to LR! In the mean time, these will have to do.
Gabi took some notes about the spider monkeys.

But they were uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn on this cloudy, drizzly yet warm day. Maybe they have the post-Christmas blues. Poor monkeys.

Swans are Patriotic?

Nope, I don't suppose swans are about to replace the eagle as the national bird. But we did wake up on the 4th of July to Queen and Barron the Royal Swans at our favorite hotel in Dallas.

And the kids wore patriotic clothes:

And Gabi made two new best friends during the time it took us to eat breakfast and she didn't want to leave.

Enchanted Springs Ranch

Isn't there some saying about if you hear hooves running, look for horses not zebras? Well, we arrived at the tourist attraction ranch and discovered zebras! And a few more exotic creatures:
Chinese red deer, black something deer, European deer (with the huge racks), antelopes, lamas,reindeer, and of course Texas Longhorns. We watched one of those giant antlered European deer scare a longhorn steer into moving out of its way. Side note: These below are a species of African antelope that is endangered--- many of them are now on ranch land in Texas because it closely mimics their native climate -- but their native areas of Africa are loosing grass and water with global warming. This ranch and others in Texas have small herds of them, hoping to be able to return them to Africa some day. I was struck by how closely their faces resembled African masks.
The kids were impressed with all the critters we saw on the covered wagon ride.
Then we explored the ranch, which is a movie set of an old west town and homestead.

And we met Woodrow who is a real, live longhorn who let kids sit on his back.


Us grown ups just got to grab him by the horns. Yes, we literally grabbed the bull by the horns.
Micah declared himself sheriff.
Gabi made friends with Buster the fawn who wandered the ranch property.

Blake got called up for audience participation during Pistol Packin' Paulas gun twirlin' and whip crackin' show.
Gabi rode a pony.

And we all had fun!