Lowes shopping carts

Lowe's has the coolest shopping carts for kids. Here's a double-seater with 2 steering wheels. Makes for 2 very happy youngsters.

Goodbye Sweet Gum Tree

Here is our Sweet Gum Tree in all its glory.

This was the only tree in our backyard. It was so beautiful and gave us great afternoon shade but it also dropped 'gumballs' at all times of the year. Imagine stepping on one of these in your bare footies. Not a pleasant feeling!

So this is how our backyard looks now. We still have 3 small pine trees and they may get bigger, stronger and healthier now that the gum tree is gone. Our grass may even get thicker, too.

Eagle

Another trip to the Memphis Zoo this week. I couldn't help but feel sorry for this majestic bird locked away in a large cage enclosure. But isn't he beautiful?

The Northwest Passage exhibit is gorgeous. I especially love all of these quotes that are engraved in stone. Unfortunatly, this is the only one I took a picture of. Next time I will get them all.

Hot pipes

The temperatures here have been in the high 90's for the past 2 weeks and I try to keep everyone hydrated as much as possible. But sometimes a cats gotta do what a cats gotta do even if that means drinking out of the kids blow-up pool.

Another day at the Memphis Zoo

Its Friday again and almost 100'... welcome summer, right? Well, we can only stand to be cooped up in the house for so long on hot days so I loaded the kids up in the car and we headed to the zoo again. Got there early and got out early.

First stop...the 'Animals Of The Night' exhibit...or what Carmen calls 'The Bat Cave.' We love this exhibit for 2 reasons. 1) the air conditioning and 2) the really neat animals inside. Porcupine, armadillo, sloth, bats, beetles, and a few really rare creatures from South America. Wish I could have gotten some good pics of the animals but its just too dark inside.

I did manage to get a good shot of Carmen and Eli enjoying themselves... and the creatures.

Our next stop was the new 'Birds & Bees' exhibit which just opened last week. We walked in and were overwhelmed with the amount of parakeets inside. Carmen even got to feed one from a stick. She just held the stick (which had a clump of bird seed on one end) up in the air and a parakeet swooped right down and landed on it. Pretty cool.

And whats cooler than a bird landing on your stick? Two birds landing on your stick!

Our last stop of the day was 'Teton Trek' which is the home to 3 grizzly bears, a small pack of white wolves and some elk. The lodge is very impressive. It is a much smaller replica of Yellowstone Lodge. We sat down inside and watched kids play in the fountain outside while we cooled off and enjoyed our sack lunch.

The great thing about going to the zoo is that we bought a yearly membership pass, so we can go anytime we want and just see a few exhibits each day. Next time we will see the Polar Bear and Sea Lions.