Early Birds at the Zoo

We decided to buy a Zoo pass this year but it has been so hot that we hadn't been going. Jared had an idea to get up really early in the morning and be at the Zoo at 7:30 a.m. when you can enter if you have a Zoo membership. With a little planning, we actually arrived at 7:33 a.m. and had the place pretty much to ourselves. The only thing we had to watch out for was the Zookeepers' trucks.
It was so fun! We had a blast and it was cooler and more enjoyable. We were able to see animals being fed and some were out that we hadn't seen before. By 9:00 - 10:00 a.m., we were ready to go home and we had a special treat of yogurt and doughnuts for breakfast.

School Awards

Hope made it through her first year of Middle School. She did super great getting A's throughout the school year in her Pre-AP classes. She is one hard worker! We're so happy that she also enjoyed History Club and Art. Her talents are really developing. Great job!

Zayah finished up his Pre-K year with lots of fun at Splish Splash Day, having a PJ day & yummy treats for the End of the school year. He'll now move on to Kindergarten in the Fall. Wow, that's great!

I attended school awards programs for Nessa & Brigham. Luckily for me, they were scheduled on the same day right after each other. It was really neat and I managed to get one great picture of each child getting their award even though I was holding Noah. Amazing!

Here is Nessa, pictured with her 3rd grade teacher Ms. Oakes, receiving her awards. She received 4th/9 wks. A+B Honor Roll, A+B Honor Roll All Year, Citizenship Award (E) in conduct All Year and promotion to 4th grade. Magnificent job, Vanessa!

Here is Brigham, pictured with his 4th grade teacher Ms. Resendez, receiving his awards. He received 4th/9 wks. A+B Honor Roll, 4th/9 wks. Perfect Attendance, Citizenship Award (E) in conduct All Year and promotion to 5th grade. We're super excited for Brigham!

Kayaking the River

Here are a few pictures of the latest kayaking trip that Jared took with Cowboy (Brigie) and Tex (Zayah). They get up early & travel to the San Marcos River. They love to go with their Dad & something they look forward to. I know they'll always remember it!

Cowboy said he handled a kayak all by himself for the first time. His dad said he did a really good job. Jared said he only tipped Cowboy once on purpose.

Our Little Sacajawea

Nessa worked very hard on a report for school about Sacajawea. Her school had a Wax Museum theme to present the reports to parents and the students on Thurs. May 29th. Nessa had to dress up like her famous person. She memorized a bit about her and when someone would press her button than she gave the speech. She also worked on a report on a tri-fold poster board. It turned out very well and she did a great job!
Jared and I were able to attend with Gracie & Noah. Gracie liked the treats some of the 'famous people' gave out. There were a lot of Sacajawea's, Neil Armstrong's, Ruth Wakefield's, Dr. James Naismith's, Marion Donvan's and Jacques-Yves Cousteau's to name a few. It was a lot of fun!

A few more Zoo photos

I wanted to add these photos as well to the blog. They are also from our trip to the Zoo. Time is flying by and Noah is 7 months old. Look at how much he's grown.













Gracie playing in the sand










Monkey in the cage










Tired Cheetah resting in the sun

Did You Know?

• The name cheetah comes from an Indian word meaning "spotted one."
• The young cub has a long gray-blue coat and a black underbelly that rapidly lightens and becomes spotted.
• Early peoples trained cheetahs for hunting, and many civilizations depicted them in their art and in written records.
• Cheetahs were so popular that Akbar the Great of India was said to have kept a stable of about 1,000.

~Quoted from www.awf.org American Wildlife Foundation.

At the Zoo

We were able to go to the Zoo on the Fri. May 24th. It was a lot of fun! I enjoy learning about the different animals and observing what they do. I do feel bad to see them in cages and such though. I would never be able to travel the world to see all these animals in their natural habitats. For some of the animals the zoo is all they know. Here are some fun photos of us there. We had so much fun in the water and beach type set up they had there. Lots of fun in the sand. You can see why the Zoo is one of our favorite places!

Flamingo's Rock!










Beautiful Gracie










Gracie loves turtles even pretend ones.










An All-American Zayah boy!

Art Show

Hope has done such a magnificent job in Art this year. I am really proud to report that she was a Featured Artist at her school's Art Show on May 14th. I was able to meet her Art teacher, Ms. Gabbard, when we attended and she praised Hope for working hard and vastly improving her talents. Hope drew the flamingo just for me as a Mother's Day present. I love it! I also love her self-portrait . It amazed me! Her landscapes are fun and have a folk feel to them. This really reminds me of my Grandma Rae, who is an artist and paints very similar to the way Hope did in the bottom left corner. You are such a creative artist, Hope!