The Austin Zoo

My sister and I took the girls to the Austin Zoo last week. The Austin Zoo is not like a traditional zoo---it has many rescued and rehabilitated animals and visiting it is more like going on a hike in a forest...with encounters with lions, tigers and bears :) We had a great time watching Emma and Mia interact with the animals...and with each other!!!Emma and Mia holding hands.

Emma's first experience with feeding goats. I was definitely more nervous that they were going to mistake her finger for a carrot than she was :)

Hmmmm....which one should I pick to feed? Mia's bag of food got stolen from Mia's hands and the lamb yanked into their pen. This GREATLY disturbed Emma and she cried and cried at the injustice...and was mad at us for not fixing the problem.

That's right...go ahead and lay the food right on the goat's tongue.

Camie with Mia and Emma

Mia and Emma watching the tiger sleep. There were quite a few tigers at the zoo. They have a lion, but it was not out.

Emma loves turtle and this was a BIG one :)

We had a great time with the Fillpot girls! I am definitely going to head back to the Austin Zoo soon! Maybe next time we will take Trav! He sounded a little bummed that he missed the trip!

Quack, Quack, Quack!!!

Last week we went to the "Duck Pond" in Round Rock. We kept reading and hearing about it and thought we would take a bag of hotdog buns and Emma and go check it out. Travis and Emma on the look out for the duckies. There was a steep-ish slope to the water, so it was tough to get to the ducks that were around. Notice that Emma is ready to throw her bread in :)

There was one duck that stayed on this rock the entire time we were there. It was very strange...and YES, it was real :) Em could not throw that far out.

In fact...she could not throw out very far at all. Notice the bits of bread floating near her toes :)

Sooooo...after not much success at the duck pond, we decided to go to another pond near her sitter's house. It was MUCH better and gave Emma a better idea of what feeding the ducks should be.

This little guy (or girl) was soooooo stinkin' cute and running around trying to get bread with the big ducks...or as Emma called them---the mammas.

Emma got caught off guard when this duck came up and grabbed 1/2 of the hotdog bun from her fingers. Oops...she did not let it happen again!

Close encounters...I guess she was feeling pretty brave.

Ready...Set...Go!!!! Notice Travis in the background. He was rethinking putting the bag of buns on the ground. These ducks were hungry and sneaky!

The duck stand-off. Emma has the bread and all the power in this situation :)

Finally...A Pony Tail

Sweet girl!!! She is growing up sooooo quickly!!!!

Port A...Day 2, 3, 4, and 5

The Girl loves her some sour lemons!!!

















T burying his little treasure :)














T used spray on sunscreen...and then forgot to ask me to put sunscreen on the rest of his back. OOPS!






















Mmmmmm...Froot Loops!

















Her goggles ("glasses") were a big hit!


















She propped them on her forehead on her own.










Ready for some fun in the sun...if only Mommy and Daddy were not soooooo slow!!!!!














This is the way life should begin every morning!



















Fishies!























More fish...BIG fish!
















T showing Emma how big he would be if he were a bird.

















Em trying to do the same...stretch those arms out!!!


















The underwater room watching dolphins. It was sooooo peaceful!





































Look...an alligator! This was probably one of her favorite things at the aquarium. She kept following it as it swam back and forth.

Another thing that she thought was pretty amazing. She wanted to keep dropping in pennies and watch them swirl around. If we only knew we only had to spend 11 cents to make Emma happy... :)

Feeding the seagulls. It got a bit scary at one point and T decided that it was better to quit before the flew away with our daughter.

Enjoying an evening stroll at the beach.

The big shark mouth--- I had to get this picture.

Em was SOOOOOO very tired on the drive home. Notice the bite of grilled cheese in her mouth.

Port A...Day 1

Emma LOVES the ocean, sea shells, sand, and waves!!!! So far, this has been a great trip!!!!

Fun Times with Cousins

Emma got to hang out with my cousin's son, Luca, last week. We met them at Jungle Java---a place that has a great toddler area. Emma and Luca had a great time. The first picture is of Emma and Luca when Em was almost 2 month old and Luca was just over a month old. Look how they have grown!!!!

Now look at them. Luca is 19 months old and Emma is 20 months old.

And then....Emma got to hang out with Mia. They have such a great time when they get together. Here, Mia had just finished a "performance" singing "Down by the Bay". She had raided Lela's closet and found some pretty flashy shoes with "diamonds" on them. I LOVED this pose.

They had pool time.

And picture time. We tried to get a cute picture of them in their matching 4th of July dresses, but this is all Emma would sit for. We wre starting to notice that Mia was not thrilled with Emma's lack of cooperation :)

Smelling the roses.

And searching for bugs on the tree.

I am looking forward to seeing what adventures these kiddos go on when they are older. I love that Emma has cousins that are close in age and in miles :)