August Happenings

                                     Troy and Eliana up above
If you click on the picture, you can see her growing locks in the back.

GramE, Kallie, and Eliana to the left

 August has been a blur of events.  I had a baby shower in the middle of the month.  I didn't bring my camera, but I'll get some pictures of the shower from my sister some time in the future.  If I haven't had the baby by then, I just might put them up on the blog. I'm not promising a whole lot of blogging once our newest wee one comes.  We had a lot of family come up from our hometown.  It was great for Eliana to see them, especially her cousin Kallie who she played very well with.

 Eliana and Kallie

 I found that I took my camera several places in August only to realize that I hadn't charged it.  Here are a few shots from the zoo with GramE and Rachelle.  Eliana loves the tigers and the Dino Dig.

 When Aunt Marcie visited later this month, we went to the zoo again.  We were there for the grand opening of the new sea lion exhibit.  It was AMAZING and so much nicer than the former one.  There is a whole section on the other side of the exhibit where you can see through glass into the underwater world of the sea lions and seals.  I meant to snap a picture of Eliana and Aunt Marcie, but alas I didn't.

 Eliana turned 26 months last week.  My how time flies.  Overall I love having a two year old.  She's been having a hard week with her two year molars coming in.  The top two are in, and the bottom two are partially in.  Eliana loves being outside.  Yesterday while Kyle, Eliana, and I were walking in the "cool" of the evening, Eliana said, "Look, I found it!"  Curious as to what "it" was, I asked and she smiled with glee, pointed, and said, "Clouds!!!!!!!!"  Awe.  I too enjoyed the clouds multiple times on our walk and was glad that Eliana pointed them out.

Eliana's memory is cracking us up.  In July, she saw Thomas.  Thomas showed her a giant stuffed animal tiger which happened to terrify her.  If you mention Thomas, she says, "Thomas. Tiger."  After the baby shower, which was nearly two weeks ago, Taylor was holding Eliana when she had an accident (which hasn't happened to anyone else while they were holding her).  Here and there she brings up, "Pee Pee on Taylor."  She is very sorry that she did so.

Things Eliana reads or is read to are very important to her.  She regularly goes looking for the moon outside since in one of her books a bear and the moon play hide and go seek.  She can tell you just about all of the words for Kitten for a Day as you turn the pages.  Dr. Seuss's ABC An Amazing Alphabet Book cracks her up on the "c" page because the camel is on the ceiling.  "Silly camel" is her response.  Her new favorite series is the Little Bear series.  We picked up another story today at the library.  It amazes me how she can sit and listen for such a long time.  It is such a blessing, because she isn't whining due to her teeth if she is sitting and listening.

We've reached the 35+ week mark in pregnancy!  Eliana often says, "The baby is growing!"  One night a week or so ago she said, "Baby sister.  Baby sister come out and play!"  I told her baby sister needs to keep growing for a few more weeks.  We love at night when after giving me a hug and a kiss, she kisses baby sister by kissing my belly.  We've been getting some of the baby gear out, and she loves playing with it all.  Her dollies have gone in the stroller, the car seat, and had their clothes changed multiple times thanks to Aunt Marcie's handy sewing work.

July 4th, a Zoo day!

We were super blessed to get a zoo membership for Eliana's birthday!  We went as a family on July 4th!

 Eliana enjoyed the dino dig area where she and Kyle worked to uncover a t-rex before the amazing bird show.

 I love Eliana's facial expression here!

 I really enjoy taking pictures of macaws.  They are show such a brilliantly bright array of God's creativity.

We spent the evening with Rachel, Ruli, Sarah, and church family.  It was great to enjoy the fellowship and talk with other moms about pregnancy.  We're 28 weeks along!!!  The baby is growing and should weigh around 2 pounds now.  She is getting stronger and we can visibly see her stretch out and move across my belly.  

Butterflies, Birds, and More

 Penguins remind me of some special friends in Wisconsin and Aunt Marcie.  The penguin exhibit was pretty amazing.  They made a portion of the water area an alcove that children loved to sit in and watch the birds swim around and even take a rest right above them on the plexiglass.

 The zoo had several aviaries.  I especially like this one because people could feed nectar to the birds.  So even though we didn't feed the birds, they didn't mind us being close to them.  I'm always amazed at how brilliantly colorful God made some birds.

 The zoo had a special butterfly exhibit.  A queen butterfly is shown above.  Had there been a little breeze and a little more shade, I think I could have stayed in there for hours.

This banana spider was at least the size of my closed fist!  AHHH!!!  The zoo keeper caught it and a few smaller ones since eating the butterflies wasn't beneficial to the exhibit.  I wouldn't want catch spiders as part of my job.  No thank you!

spice bush swallow tail

swallowtail butterfly

zebra longwing butterfly

                                      sulfer  butterfly                                         white peacock butterfly

monarch butterfly

Zoo Chats

My Dad likes lemurs.  I find them often challenging to photograph, but this photo turned out pretty good.

Something that impressed both Kyle and I at this zoo was the water ways around exhibits.  Several of them were full of sea life we could easily see. 

 This snake is SO MUCH BIGGER than a photo can show.  I turned a corner, saw the snake, and backed up quickly.  There is a reason why people made a movie about anacondas.

 Of all of the animals we saw that day at the zoo, this turtle made me laugh the most.  That is moss growing on his head and shell.  It gently swayed in the water like a three mohawks on his head.

 We were praying for boldness and opportunities while we traveled.  While enjoying the birds in the aviary below, Kyle and a zoo educator started chatting.  I kept wandering and prayed for them to have a spiritual conversation.  After talking a while Kyle switched subjects and asked if he could ask a super deep and heavy question.  The educator was curious and willing.  "If you died today and were to stand before God, and He asked why He should let you into heaven, what would you say?" Kyle asked.  Our training encouraged us to wait patiently for an answer.  After awhile the young guy shared that he'd be scared to stand before God.  Although the young man had gone to church before he didn't know the gospel, but he was willing to listen as Kyle shared.  He was looking for cleanness, and Kyle explained that God is the only one who could give him the cleanness he desired.  

 If someone asked you how to get to heaven, would you be prepared to share?

The bird to the left is named Rosy.  She adores the zoo keeper I chatted with.  She is well accustomed to humans and sees the keepers as equals.  I asked if she was the keeper's best friend, and he said, "No, she is more of a nuisance."  She followed him around and wanted to be in his arms the whole time we chatted.

The macaw above is named Roxy.  Sadly, Roxy doesn't know he can fly.  He was rescued from an abandoned house.  The zoo keeper moved him to that ledge.  Even though he wasn't thrilled to be so close to humans, he didn't know how to fly away.  Even with other birds and another macaw flying around, he still didn't know to fly.

Roxy's lack of flight reminded me of what fear does Christ followers.  We don't realize how much God can do with us, because fear gets in the way.  I am often guilty of letting my fears stand in the way of sharing the gospel.   Soon though, I will share of sharing the gospel while at lunch.

For Sherry:)

Zoo Photos

 Kyle and I made a mistake while booking our flights for a mission expo.  It turned out we'd be arriving before the expo began.  Rachel saved the day by making us aware of this mistake.  I can't imagine what would have happened had she not noticed that the day I said we were leaving didn't match up with the flight itinerary.  The Lord does work in others, and I'm glad Rachel was paying attention.

 We decided to go to the local zoo with our extra day.  Although we had initially planned to go there via bus, it would have taken us 2.5 hours to go the 14 miles to the zoo.  With a bit of research on Kyle's part, we were able to rent a car for the price it would have taken us to go to the zoo via taxi.  That is excluding the price it would have taken us to get back to the hotel.

Polka dots???  I don't think I've ever seen a bird like this one before.

 I loved seeing animals we had never seen before!  I was startled to find these East African Bongos.

We really enjoyed how much space the animals had at this zoo.  Although it isn't as much as would be out in the wild, I felt they weren't as cramped as other zoos.

 No wonder alligators and other animals are able to hide so well in the water.  There was another alligator in the water.  You could only see his head because it was moving.  The rest of him was totally submerged.  I can understand how pieces of drift would are mistaken for alligators and vise versa.