Zoo

Before hitting the Decatur children's museum, we hit up the local zoo. Of course, we had to ride the endangered animal (or aminal, as Maggie would say) merry-go-round and train.





Here are the gators.


Here's what Maggie thinks of being a Minotaur:


Surprisingly, they had bactrian camels - one of the rarest animals on Earth.

We also got to go into the petting zoo, though Maggie didn't do much petting.







Maggie was also a little skeptical of the peacock.

Decatur Children's Museum

Last week, we drove to Decatur to check out the zoo and children's museum. When we first walked into the museum they had a big room where you could paint on the windows. Here's Maggie doing her best rendition of Monet.



After painting we moved on to the bubble room...not quite as spectacular as Willy Wonka's bubble room, but still pretty fun.





After the bubble room, Maggie took some time to check the status of a couple of babies in the neonatal ward...




...and to take a quick trip to Cabo for pina coladas and salsa.

She also found time to make dad some coffee.




They also had a really cool water table where you could place little barriers to form currents and reservoirs. I may have enjoyed it more than Maggie...


In the center of the museum there was a huge thing to climb. She didn't quite get to the top, but it was meant for older kids, so I say she did a great job (we're the everyone-gets-a-trophy type parents).



Maggie's favorite part of the museum (which she refused to leave) was shopping at the grocery store - complete with basket, purse, and money.



She filled her basket with staples, like a slab of velveta cheese....


detergent for the laundry....


and fresh french bread.


Time to check out!


We will definitely visit again. Afterwards, we went to find a restaurant, but we ended up seeing a Popeye's, so we decided to just load up on carbs and triglycerides.

All in all, it was an eventful week. The tornado sirens went off on Wednesday and we had tornados just to the north and south of town, but not much reported damage. Locals informed us that the sirens only go off once every 5 years or so (only when there is a tornado on the ground to the west). On Thursday, a teenaged motorist (most likely texting on her i-phone) ran into the front end of my truck - ruined my wheel and front fender for sure. I was able to back up so that the toe truck could get her car out of the road, so there may not be too much damage to the axle or other expensive parts. Anyway, I have an exciting trip to the Toyota shop coming up.

hodge podge (or smorgasbord, if you will)

I got a new BBQ pit when mom and dad came to visit. This is nice because in Austin, we either had to haul all of our food over to the community pit, or roll the dice and risk getting a hefty fine by cooking on our porch. So far, I've grilled all of the backstrap that mom and dad delivered on their trip, and we've grilled salmon a couple of times. At first, Maggie wouldn't eat the salmon, but after she took a bite, she couldn't stop eating it.





She even stole some of mom's.



On mother's day, Maggie was running around in her new Elmo PJs trying to get away from mom, but she wasn't quick enough.




Our friends, Sveta and Yuri, came over one night to eat some BBQ'ed backstrap. Maggie was totally infatuated with their son, Alyosha, and she kept following him everywhere and saying his name over and over again. Finally, Alyosha told her to stop repeating his name. I think this picture sums up Maggie's night...she totally adores him :)


One day soon after, Sveta and Alyosha came to visit on their bikes. Ever since then, Maggie sometimes stands at the window and stares out over the lawn saying, "Alyosha. Alyosha..."

Last, but not least, some "I love chocolate' pictures."


more please....


Stay tuned for updates on our latest adventures (the Decatur museum and zoo).

And - hope you feel better soon Big Daddy! Since you have a bad heart now, we'll take it easy on you when we play cards, and we may even let you win a few games here and there.

Attutide at such a young age :)

Some cool recent videos

Maggie trying to jump rope:




Maggie singing her ABCs:

Spring at the Japan House

This past weekend, we had some beautiful weather. On my way to the store to buy 2 pounds of salmon to grill for dinner, I swung by the Japan House - a nice park and garden on the outskirts of the University of Illinois campus. Many of the trees and flowers are blooming and most of the trees are finally starting to put out leaves. It was quite serene and is definitely worth a visit sometime.