Still a Zoo

I really like living near a big city, with all the amenities it has to offer, like the parks, and the museums, and the zoo, and the thrift stores.  (Yes, the thrift stores rank very highly in my estimation!)  Our three favorite places are the children's museum, the science museum, and the zoo, all of which are conveniently located within walking distance of each other, and bordering Hermann Park, another favorite spot.  All three offer free admission once per week or month, but as of just recently, we have memberships at all three, so we can enjoy them whenever we want.  When I was growing up, the children's museum and the zoo were very rare treats, so unlimited access feels like a real luxury, you know?

Anyway, last Tuesday was this month's free admission day at the zoo, so my sister suggested that we all (the moms and kids anyway) go.

The boys and I, being zoo members, got to skip the line (the lap of luxury, I tell ya) so while we were waiting for the others, the boys of course had to climb on the rhinoceros.

Mercy and her beautiful daughters:

Luke is a popular little guy.

 Thomas and his mama

Admiring some Ankole cattle.  They have impressive horns!

 Snack time!

The petting zoo was a big hit.

As you may have heard, I now have a new niece.  My brother and his wife were blessed with their fourth child a couple of weeks ago.  She's beautiful (of course) and hopefully at some point I'll post some photos.  But life is busier than ever, so no promises. :)

Independence Day 2012

Last Wednesday was Independence Day.  We went to Mark and Mercy's for lunch, where we spent time both indoors (during the rain showers) and outdoors (between them), eating grilled hot dogs (and other good food) and visiting with one another.

It was almost two years ago that we enjoyed another barbecue in this same back yard, only back then it was Caleb and Leah's house.  A few babies have been added to our church family since then.  Mercy, for instance, was pregnant with Charlotte, last time around.  Now Charlotte is this curly-headed little darling

...and Mercy is pregnant with baby #3.    

Since July 4th was a Wednesday, we had a church service in the evening.  By then the rain clouds had cleared away, and when the service was over, the young people took off to Kemah to see some fireworks.  The boys and I were about to head home when a friend ran up to the car and asked "Do you want to come over, just because?" and of course we did..so we went to their house, where the kids had a great time playing together, and the adults spent some time eating oatmeal bars, drinking iced rooibus tea, and discussing the exciting future ahead of us. :)  No fireworks--but a nice Independence Day just the same.

Two Years in Texas

A little over two years ago, I sold my house, sold my things, loaded my children and remaining belongings into my car, and moved to Texas. 

Some things about Texas have been just as I expected.  For instance, it's hot.

Other things have been quite unexpected. For instance, I never would have dreamed that Mom and Dad would move to Israel just a few short months after my arrival.

Here are the things I don't like about Texas (don't worry, it's a short list): the bugs, the driving.

Here are the things I like about Texas: the city, the parks, the ocean, the sky, the weather (yes, really), the visitors from around the world, my family, the other families, my nieces and nephew, all the children and babies, the young people, the psalm singing, the church.

A quote that fits:

The true visible church, where God's ordinances are set up as he hath
appointed, where his word is purely preached, is the most beautiful
thing under heaven, and there is God's glory set forth and manifested
more clearly than in all the Lord's handiwork beside in heaven or earth.

...David Dickson

Independence Day

Mom and Dad are home on a visit from Israel.  I can't really say that they are "on vacation" because they are both still working hard, Dad on his translation work, and Mom on writing music for the Hebrew psalms.  But it is nice to have them here, and to hear more about Israel and the work they are doing there.

This week has been an unusual one in some ways.  It is comforting to have my parents here at this time.  Besides prayer, there's not much I can do, but to "keep calm and carry on" as the British say.

Carrying on, then: last Monday was Independence Day.

If I were an ambitious blogger, I might tackle a nice controversial topic appropriate to the holiday--for example: is America really a Christian nation?  Or, were the colonists justified in rebelling against the British government?

But I'm not feeling particularly ambitious today, so instead I will post pictures of adorable little children enjoying The Quintessential American Independence Day.

(Adorable, right?) 

What is The Quintessential American Independence Day, you ask?  Why, a beautiful sunny day on which you go to a barbecue, of course, and eat hot dogs and hamburgers and watermelon and corn on the cob and brownies on paper plates, and drink sweet tea and coffee, all while sitting in lawn chairs beneath shade trees with friends and relatives of at least three generations,

from grandmother

to youngest grandchild,

and the children ride trikes and wagons around in the driveway,

and swing on the tire swing,

and run laughing through the sprinkler in the sunshine.

And in the evening (if the kids aren't too tired) you head downtown to hear the free outdoor concert and see the fireworks.  The concert has to include Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Yes, we are fully aware that the 1812 Overture doesn't have anything to do with American independence, but it's an Independence Day tradition anyway, especially when accompanied by live cannons and followed by a fireworks show.

Here's a video of the 1812 Overture.  I had a hard time selecting a video from Youtube, but in the end I went with this one because it had the best cannons.  Elijah reads my blog, and I like to cater to my audience. :) Enjoy!

A Trip to the "Alligator Park"

We live not far from a state park known for its population of alligators.  One morning recently, I checked the weather forecast and saw that the day would be exceptionally beautiful, so I decided to take the boys to the "alligator park."

As it turns out, we only saw one alligator in the wild.  He was pretending to be a log, and waiting for dinner to come along.

We did see baby alligators in the nature center, and a nice lady who worked there got one out of the tank for the boys to pet.  We also saw an alligator skeleton in the nature center, and lots of other creepy (live) critters like poisonous snakes and spiders.  I think the nature center was the boys' favorite part of the park.

I, however, most enjoyed our hike.  The boys like to run, so they did.  I reminded them of the story of the tortoise and the hare, but to no avail.

We saw lots of white birds (what are these?)

And grey ones (don't know what this one is either)

And cool trees.  I like live oak trees.  How do they grow such huge branches parallel to the ground without the trunk splitting open?  A marvelous feat of engineering!

The boys liked this hollow one...

By the end of our hike, this tortoise mama was still good to go, but the two hares boys were worn out, so we called it a day.  Look at our dusty feet.

It's a Zoo Around Here

Y'all might know that we have a lot of small children here in Texas.  The other night at church I realized that of fifty-two people in attendance, twenty-two were children aged six and under (granted, a few of the little ones belonged to visiting families and won't be here much longer).  Since we keep our little ones in church with us for the most part, only taking them out if absolutely necessary, most of those twenty-two were in the service with us.  But on the whole, the service was very quiet, as usual--not a zoo at all!  

Yes, I'm getting to the zoo part.  On Friday, a group of friends went to the actual zoo, near the medical center in Houston.  The boys go to the zoo frequently with their dad, who has a zoo membership, but I've only been once; but that morning, the ex kindly called the zoo and added me to his membership, so that I could go myself, and join our friends when they went.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny day, and we enjoyed ourselves greatly.

My sister was there with her two daughters.  Olivia (her oldest) was out well past her naptime and you could tell that she was tired, but she stayed reasonably cheerful and only cried once, at the end of our outing, when she had to part ways with her beloved aunt. Yes, that would be me. :D

And Charlotte (my sister's youngest) spent most of the afternoon napping in the Moby wrap.

Leah (my sister-in-law) also had her youngest in a carrier.  Brooklyn is such a smiley baby!  I'm disappointed that I didn't get a picture of her lovely smile.  You will have to settle for a picture of her lovely chubby cheeks.

 

Brooklyn again, this time with Mrs. Anna (Leah's stepmother).  That's Clement (Rachel's youngest) in the green shirt.

Noah was a happy boy.  Elijah, on the other hand, was a bit sulky because we didn't do the activities he wanted to do as quickly as he wanted to do them.  Must work on his attitude...

Noah in the tunnel by the prairie dog exhibit.

Brown pelicans.  We see pelicans when we go to the beach--I love watching them skim the waves, scooping out fish.

Giraffes.

White rhino in the new African Forest exhibit.

Benjamin (Rachel's second oldest) in the petting zoo area.

 

It's hard to take pictures through glass, but I thought this one was pretty neat.  We have a book about otters that the boys really like, so they were thrilled to see some real live otters.

Lastly we stopped at the aquarium.  By the time we'd seen everything else, we were getting pretty tired, so the cool and dark of the aquarium was quite welcome. 

These are piranhas.

Jellyfish of some sort. 

I think that's probably the most pictures I've ever put into one post!  If you haven't had your fill of pictures yet, you can see more on Rachel's blog--from the zoo and elsewhere too.

Last Friday

On Friday the boys and I took a trip to Galveston.  We like Galveston.  First we rode the ferry, which is both exciting, and free.  (Sadly, this time we did not see any dolphins.)  The ferry goes from Galveston Island to the Bolivar Peninsula, which doesn't have much of anything on it (thanks Ike), except for the Fort Travis Seashore Park, which is interesting thanks to its crumbling old concrete bunkers and fortifications.

These kids are so stinking cute together, I can't stand it.  Isn't this a cool rusty old door?  It leads into one of the old concrete bunkers.  You can't see the jagged piece of rusty metal sticking out right behind Noah's bare legs.

I guess funds are low or something because this park does not seem to be big on safety.  It was odd to see this open manhole cover without at least caution tape or a warning sign or something. I suspect that some unsupervised youth have been using this tunnel here to access the interior of the bunker, which is supposed to be off limits.

Looks kind of desolate, don't you think?

Oh, here at last is a "danger" sign. Just to the right of all the broken off fence posts with the jagged metal edges.  It's funny, walking around this place, I felt like I was trespassing on abandoned property. 

We spent a little while on the playground (which is in good repair, thankfully).  Behind Noah is the Houston ship channel, which leads to the Port of Houston, the busiest port in the US.  In this photo, you can see five vessels if you look closely (one is just a dot on the horizon).  It's kind of neat seeing all the industry along the channel--the huge loading docks, the oil refineries, and of course the cargo ships, fishing vessels, and oil rigs.  Occasionally we see a huge cruise ship with passengers lining the rails.  Lots of things to talk to the boys about, and to look up in the encyclopedia when we get home.

After we came back from the Bolivar Peninsula, we parked along the Galveston seawall and spent some time on the beach.  The boys had a grand time digging in the sand. 

In other news, the weather here gets more fantastic by the day.  Look at the forecast for the next week:

 In case you can't read it, it says "Weather forecast: gorgeous, gorgeous, and more gorgeous."

September 2010

As the weather begins to cool slightly, Texans are coming out of hibernation.  We've been spending more time outside, and we're not alone; when we go downtown on Saturdays, we find that the parks and jogging trails are beginning to fill up again (and parking spaces are harder to come by). 

One recent Saturday, when I went to pick up the boys, I found them (and their dad, of course) at the Miller Outdoor Theatre watching Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, played with period instruments.  We love the free performances at the Miller Theater, at least when they play classical.

The evenings are the best time to get out for a bike ride.  A few months ago, when the ex gave us this bike, I thought, "Oh dear, I'm not looking forward to teaching Elijah how to ride this."  But I needn't have worried; he taught himself within about fifteen minutes.

 
Noah's tricycle was a birthday present from Uncle Caleb and Aunt Leah.  I highly recommend these old-fashioned metal Radio Flyer trikes.  They are nice and sturdy, and big enough that they will last a child a long time.

It's funny, my boys are almost two and a half years apart, but people are always asking me "Are they twins?"  I guess it's because Noah is so tall for his age.  They are close enough to the same size that they are able to share most of their clothes.

Barbecue in July

On Saturday, Caleb and Leah hosted a barbecue at their house.  Saturday was also Jeshurun's birthday, and the day prior had been Aunt Terry's birthday, so this was sort of a birthday barbecue.  We ate some delicious food including Leah's excellent stuffed jalapenos (my favorite), the usual assortment of grilled meats, fresh watermelon from Carl's garden, and some really good chocolate cake prepared by Sarah.  The young folks and grownups enjoyed some nice conversation indoors and out; the little ones played on the slip n' slide and in the kiddie pool.

 Jesh is camera-shy.  When he sees the camera focusing on him, he gets really absorbed in whichever baby he's holding (Louis, in this case).  He is always holding babies.

One super cute little niece. :)

The other super cute little niece. :)

Sam, camera in hand as usual.  He's not really that pale--it's just that the light settings on my camera were all wrong.  All of my pictures looked really washed-out, actually, until I boosted the contrast with Picasa (my favorite free photo editor).

Moms with babies. :)  Oh, and Mark.  We missed Joseph and Carolyn and James and Hayley, and their respective children.

Carl, Jeshurun, Nat, Mark, Mercy, and Sam.  In this picture, you can actually almost tell that Mercy is five months pregnant.  She isn't showing much yet.

The other grownups were visiting inside, where it was nice and cool.  Sorry, the flash on my camera doesn't work, so no indoor pictures. 

Last but not least, Shona and Gerrit relaxing in the hammock at the end of a lovely afternoon. :)