This week, I decided we’d better do a little bit of something to balance out the nothingness that happened last week. 😉 A trip to the zoo was the prefect antidote. We went on Tuesday, because Tuesday was the coolest day of the week. We made sure to go in the morning before the humidity and heat became unbearable. It got a little warm towards the end of our excursion, but by then we were on the train that winds its way through Brakenridge Park, so we didn’t notice as much.
Monday was ridiculously hot (this was at about 3:45 in the afternoon…in the shade), so we didn’t go anywhere (other than grocery shopping) on Monday.Abigail loved getting to see the bears actually out and about. The funny thing about this picture is that there were a couple of ducks that were walking around in the enclosure, right in front of the bear. They were quickly waddling along and the bear was following behind. I guess they felt confident enough that duck wasn’t on the menu.Checking out one of the Komodo dragons. This one was in the indoor enclosure. The other one was outside, but it was hard to see it because it was completely submerged in the water. They know what to do when it gets hot!The hippos hadn’t gotten hot yet, so the kids clambered up onto them so I could get a picture.Checking out the real hippos.My favorite animal: the okapi! It’s so pretty!The top of the elephant was already too hot to sit on, so she told me she’d hold onto its tail instead.Checking out the Dama gazelles. We couldn’t see any dik-diks. They’re pretty small and tend to hide under the brush a lot.It isn’t often that this statue isn’t swarming with kids, so we took advantage of it for another photo spot.On the train. Abigail had to make sure that her red panda was in the shot. 😀Riding the train is one of our favorite things to do after walking around the zoo.The train goes over the San Antonio River a couple of times. This is one of my favorite spots on the route.Our neighbors have had a barn swallow’s nest on top of their security camera for quite some time now. This week, I noticed that the babies already hatched and are now fledglings. The neighborhood birds are grateful for our birdbath.Joseph was trying to show her how to play a game.She would do a bit, get to a hard part, and then ask him to help. While he was helping, she’d give him pointers, haha. She was pretending to be a possum with a baby in her pouch.At first, she came down with that thing shoved through her regular shirt. I begged her to take it out before the collar was too stretched out to shrink back down when washed…she conceded to putting a dress-up shirt on (since changing out to a smaller stuffed animal was NOT an option…that was her BABY!).Showing me her baby possum. 🙂I still managed to get walks in this week (I just made sure to go in the mornings) and I saw this on my walk one day. Someone in our neighborhood has some crazy good art skills!I took this picture right as I sat down to do the blog. The birds seem to know right when there’s fresh water in the birdbath (Paul had just filled it up, maybe five minutes before I snapped this picture).For the longest time, I’ve had pictures of a bunch of different lighthouses in all these frames. I decided I would leave my favorite lighthouse picture (which is just out of a calendar, like the others were) and my lighthouse cross stitch (as well as my Home Sweet Home cross stitch) up, but then switch out the others for family pictures (basically some of my favorites of the kids) and pictures I took of the Japanese Tea Gardens. I like that there’s a little more meaningful art on my wall now. Below are the pictures I chose to print up:This has always been a favorite of mine of Joseph.He was so little here!Conquering the Komodo dragon!Abigail attacking Grandpa’s fish pillows.Ever so stylish!The big snow of 2021. She absolutely loved it. There was a breeze that was taking the fresh powder off the tree leaves and it was so sparkly in the sunshine. She loved seeing the sparkles in the air. The waterfall at the Japanese Tea Gardens.A view of the Tea Gardens from one of the high points.
