Dallas Zoo

The zoo was the last stop we made in Dallas before heading down to Houston for a wedding.  It wasn't very crowded, so we got to be up front at all the animal 'shows.' 

Eli LOVED it.  There were so many animals for him to see.  We skipped the petting zoo, though, since we know all about goats and donkeys already.

Silas liked it a lot, too.  He absorbed a lot more information than the last couple of times we've gone to a zoo.

What's the difference between monkeys and apes?  Monkeys have tales!  Which caused quite a stir with Silas over why Curious George is called a monkey.

Watching the monkeys chase each other.

The tiger didn't come out for very long.

The cougar was definitely eye-balling Silas and Eli.  We wondered if he'd been fed yet.

I don't remember the name of this odd-looking bird.

Eli with an albino python.

Silas next to a regular python.  Or maybe it was a boa constrictor.

The keepers were feeding the lions while we were there.  We have a great video of the lions standing on the fence, stretching as high as they can.  Massive beasts.

We got to feed the giraffes!  

Yummy lettuce.

Silas' favorite was the cheetah, who conveniently laid down right next to the glass.

The baby giraffe that was born the same month as our nephew, baby Zechariah!

Even the elephants did tricks for apples.  

Very cool zoo and most of the animals were out on exhibit, which seems to be rare no matter the weather.  We missed the gorillas and chimpanzees, but got to see everything else.

Legoland Dallas

I'll mostly let the pictures do the talking: 

"Making" Legos

Racing the cars we made.

One of the rides.

The 4-D theater.

Dallas in Legos.

Eli amazed by the big Lego truck.

Shooting some trolls in another ride.

 

Eli on the playground's slide.  He could do it all by himself.

After the Bath

Every evening after their baths (in the winter, anyways) the boys sit right next to each other in their towels, right in front of the heater in Eli's room.  They shiver together.  Here are some cute pictures:

The Garden 2012

Every year we do a little bit more to our garden/yard. 

Last year we built some vegetable beds. 

This is what we've done so far this year:

Started seeds indoors.  Broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts.  I'm not sure if I started them in time considering the warm weather we're having, but we shall see.

I painted the fence.  It used to be a 6-foot wooden fence, but over time it became a sort of retaining wall for the path behind it.  We cut down the upper part to let in some sunshine, but had to keep the part that held back the rocks and dirt. It's not the prettiest thing ever.  We don't have the time to replace it entirely, so I just painted it to add some color to the garden.

I added this trellis to the vegetable bed my sister and I built last year. 

This is what it looked like before:

Much better, I think.

Our garden could definitely be categorized as the "Reuse" in the reduce, reuse, recycle slogan.  We use old fencing, old siding, old pallets, rocks, and even old tires (will be a potato tower eventually and I think I'm going to paint them blue, too).  But it's all actually done very orderly and ends up looking nice, even if the photo above doesn't really show it. 

So far this year we've cut back some of the unwanted bushes, built a fence around the entire garden, put in some rock steps (photo above, to the right) to walk on, raked the leaves out of the entire garden, started building a new vegetable bed, re-vamped the wooden borders to some of the flower beds, and made a new compost bin (photo below).

Here's my new compost bin.  We've got several around the place, but I don't have one close by the house that's convenient for me to use.  This one is.

My daffodils against the blue fence with the morning sunshine on them.

And again.  I love my blue fence.  It makes me feel quirky.  Only quirky people paint their raggedy old half-fence blue, right?

My Bradford pear tree blooming. 

And One More Makes Five...

One of our goats had a kid last night!

Here he is.  Cute little thing.

This is Sweet Pea.  Funny thing is, when we bought her we thought she had already been neutered.  Thinking back, I don't know why I thought that.  You know what they say when you assume something.

The other funny thing?  Onion's the daddy.  I had also assumed he was sterile because I read somewhere that goats that didn't have horns often were.  Come to find out, another reason goats often don't have horns is because they get 'disbudded' when a baby. 

 The other funny thing?  We have another female goat that is not neutered, so we might have another one coming along.  Who knows?

We don't mind the surprise though.  As a friend said, it's quite a shock, but kind of a cool one.

Our animal lover wasn't shy.  He jumped right in there.  He also jumped when the kid maaa'd at him.

He seems to be doing great.  He's all soft and cuddly.

We haven't named him yet.  Silas suggested Alvin.  I said no.

Anyone need to visit a petting zoo?  Free admission.  Call for reservations.