Atlanta Zoo

It was nice that there were days in the 70s while the kids were in town and we had a nice afternoon to visit the Atlanta Zoo. Here we go with the statues again:

My kids know how much I love them by going into bird exhibits. I'm scared of birds so standing in exhibits where the creatures are flying willy-nilly is not that fun for me. The Daisy loves birds and got this one to jump to her.

Then she gave it to The Boo because he couldn't get any to come to him (and I wasn't much help).

I love his expressions in these pictures.

On the way to the lion exhibit ...

This is a statue of Willie B., the zoo's only gorilla many years ago. I remember my parents taking me to the zoo and seeing Willie B. behind a glass enclosure playing with tires.

Now for the exciting part - the pandas!

The baby panda is growing up!

The zoo was full of babies. Bad picture of the baby gorilla:

And the two tiger cubs, which were playing and oh-so-cute!

Christmas doings pre-Thanksgiving

Great MawMaw got The Boo a Playdough pocket knife from a garage sale so I promised to make playdough when we got home. We all made playdough and the pretend pocket knife was promptly forgotten about. So we just sat on the porch and made stuff.

The Boo practically decorated the tree all by himself so I took this of him alone. The hands on the tree are from the kids every holiday ever since The Boo was born.

I've heard riding the Pink Pig at Lenox Mall is "the" thing to do every holiday so we happened to  be in the vicinity after seeing "Dolphin Tale." Goofy kid!

This is the original Pink Pig:

In keeping with all things Christmas for the day, we went to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa.

The kids wrote their list earlier in the day and gave it to Santa so he read it right there, asking The Boo just who was he planning to use spy stuff on and The Boo pointed and said,"Her!" Santa said,"That's what I thought."

This had to be the best Santa ever. The kids and I decided this was actually Santa, not just one of his helpers we usually see.

Colonial Cup & visit to Great MawMaw's

Final race of the steeplechase season is the Colonial Cup in Camden, S.C., so I took the kids. And we got this picture next to one of the national fences because they're getting replaced (I don't know why)

We watched a couple of races right next to the fence, which is always exciting to see the horses come around the bend and take that jump. It is so beautiful.

Unfortunately, such beauty sometimes comes at a price. Mussiecoocoo here broke his shoulder during the race and was put down.

The Boo really was having fun. I swear!

The Daisy? If it involves horses, she's having fun.

I didn't take this. My friend Jennifer Leadbitter at Shadwell Stable took it at the training center. It is postcard worthy!!

Sitting outside Great MawMaw's house:

And with Great MawMaw:

All in one day: visiting Aikenite then Leisa's wedding

My friend Mary Jane has left her job to concentrate on her young adult novel so I drove over to Aiken, S.C., to have lunch with her. We had a really nice visit and did I get any pictures of us together? Nooo. But I did get one of Dogwood Stable's "big horse," Aikenite.
He was such the gentleman - didn't try to bite me once.

This is an iconic Dogwood Stable photo. I had to have a copy!

Then I drove up to Greenville, S.C., for my college roommate Leisa's wedding to Mike.

And shameless self-promotion - I had to put this in just because of my $6 dress! My friend Anne is going to be annoyed I fessed up that it's $6, especially after she looked at the label and told me it was a $500 dress.

More weekend fun with the kids

We went to Keeneland for the close of the racing meet and especially to see my friend Charlie's horse, Dancing Compass, run. She ran an ok race but finished in the middle.

We still had fun.

We loved the headless horseman on the track!

Usually The Boo doesn't look this happy at the track!

During our weekend, we went to Krispy Kreme because the "hot fresh donut" sign was lit up.

And the kids watched donuts getted frosted. I forgot how much fun this is.

When we went to Louisville the day before, we stopped at Wagner's restaurant to eat. It's where all the racetrack people go. Horrible for me - I spend all my time looking at who's coming and going rather than eating!

The Daisy looks so grown up in her glasses.

Family photo time!

We stopped to see The Boys from our old street and had a very nice visit.

 

Louisville Zoo on Halloween weekend

The kids and I took a jaunt to the Louisville Zoo. It happened to be overcast and cold but still a worthwhile visit. I heard they had a baby polar bear so that's what we were on the search for.The Daisy wasn't even sure this was the baby!

But what was more fun were the grizzlies across from the baby polar bear. They were fighting or playing - don't know which - but it was very entertaining!

The other very cool thing was the seal tank where the kids watched the polar seals swimming. You had to stand there a bit to catch them swimming by.

I had to tear The Daisy away from the tank!

Not sure what it is about statues at the zoo for these kids -

The jackal, while interesting, STANK!

Again, with the statue!

The Daisy has good eyes. She spotted this bird in the aviary.

Then took this good picture of the alligator: