Richmond Zoo

On Friday we surprised the girls with a trip to the Richmond Zoo.  They knew Thursday night that we were going somewhere and they need to have their sneakers ready, so it was no surprise that they were pumped Friday morning and full of questions.  They didn't know where we were going until we pulled into the parking lot.  :)  

Selfies on the car ride to "somewhere"

Cute girls

The zoo was the perfect size for us, just enough walking but not too much.  It quickly got hot so I'm glad we didn't have hours of walking to do.

birds

Cool nest

Flamingos

Throwing some food to the ducks

Orangutan with baby on her belly!  It was so cute!

You can see the baby's arm hanging on

Snow Leopard

Rhino

We all LOVED seeing the giraffes!   They have always been my favorite with those big eyes and long eyelashes!  The girls had fun feeding them and getting slimed by their big black tongues.  Yuck.

Emily feeding the giraffe 

Hungry giraffes 

Trying to steal the cups

Love those bumps on the head

Big eyes

So tall!

Momma and babies

Emily loved feeding anything that she could

Finally found some shade!

Stinky bison

Yes, we washed hands after feeding! 

Both girls talked a lot about the penguins although we didn't spend much time looking at them. I think they were amazed that they live without ice. 

Very cool to watch the monkeys use their tails

I think we were all mesmorized  by the bats!  How cool are they?!

Kangaroos

Grey Parrot and sweaty girls

Love this pic

Sweaty, but still having fun

We watched these orangutans for quite a while.  One was building some sort of tool and kept reaching his hand under the fence to get food pieces.  They are such amazing and smart creatures.  I could have watched them interact for hours.  

The result of a long day....snoozing in the car. 

 We stopped and picked up some delicious bbq from EB&J's on the way home!

Marley the Blueberry Dog

Jeff made a very nice cover for our blueberry bush so that the birds would stop eating them.  However, the minute you take the cover off, this guy goes crazy trying to steal them!

We've determined that the blueberries are ripe when they are a dark blue and their stem has turned from green to red.  Instead of eating them as they come off, we've been washing them and freezing them in hopes of making a blueberry pie. 

out of control green beans!

yum!

Green beans are coming in!

Silly Tank

Not sure carrots are our thing....

Lake Anna

It's crazy that it's the middle of July and we are just getting the boat out, but that's what happens when you are buying a house and then starting to work on it!  The goal was to just run the boat and fish if we had time.  We didn't catch anything because it was mid-afternnoon, but we did get some sun and had fun running around the lake.  It was my first time out on the boat since I was injured all last summer!  

Checking the weather

The captain

Selfie

Wonder who's line he's fixing? 

Good times!

Wildlife Center of VA

As part of my summer school curriculum, I got a Caring for Creatures Grant through the Wildlife Center of VA which included the adoption of Edie a peregrine falcon and an education visit to the center.  I've been obsessed with the 5 orphaned bear cubs that the WCV has had on their critter cam for months and my students were just as excited as I was to go on our field trip.  We went on a hike and identified all kinds of things in the woods and met lots of the education animals including snakes, turtles, and lots of birds.  

Edie! 

And just because he is so cool, check out this guy who rode home on my car from lunch one day!!  My phone takes some darn good pics!