Kite Fest and Zoo

**Update**

There are more pictures from the zoo (the more artistic shots) on

Jim's Flickr page. Just click the Flickr sidebar to navigate there easily.

**Update**

We managed to put off most of our yard work for another weekend. I have all these grand plans for the yard, but in the spirit of being realistic, I think we'll probably do the bare minimum. Our summers our beautiful but so short. I would like to remove some of the grass in the back and replace it with a mulched area that would include some raised garden beds. Jim thought it would be cool to integrate some sort of fort/swingset type area with it too. I think this would be a "green" thing to do...grass is thirsty. Also it would be a pain to mow and trim around raised beds and play equipment. You'll have to wait and see what gets accomplished...so far we are off to a very bad start.

There are just so many other things to do....

Like going to a kite festival. Emmett knows what kites are, so we thought he would probably enjoy seeing the sky full of them. We were right.

We left with all our limbs still attached. I felt certain one of us would be decapitated or impaled with all the crazy people there....picture "trick" kites in the hands of the inexperienced....and taut kite strings everywhere.

We also became members of the zoo for the year. It is walking distance from our house and the membership includes free admission to tons of other zoos. We will probably go to the Oregon Zoo in Portland while visiting our families and just one visit there pays for over half the membership, crazy! We had so much fun today, no crowds and very active animals.

Petting the goats...the babies were cute, the others not so much.

The otters, more active than we have ever seen before!

Flamingos!


A gibbon

I could include tons more pictures. Jim got some really amazing shots. Eventually he will probably add some of the more artistic ones to his flickr site. The lions were out and scratching a tree, the tiger got in his pond, 2 peacocks were doing mating dances, the snow leapords were snarling at eachother, the mama zebra did a big kick to protect here very cute 2 week old foal, etc, etc. Emmett did great remembering names of animals and the sounds that they make. It will be really fun to spend lots of mornings there this summer.