Our Zoo Slideshow

Today we went to the Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores - this is the Little Zoo That Could that was featured on Animal Planet after the three hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast in one year. It is a nice zoo - it is smaller than other zoos I have been too - but was the perfect size for the kids.

When asked what her favorite animal was - Bella responded with "giraffe" - there were no giraffes at this zoo!!! She did enjoy seeing all the "amimals" and I believe her favorite was probably getting to feed the goats!! Brooklyn enjoyed the ride in her stroller as well! Enjoy the show!

A Trip to the Library - Slideshow

To view the slideshow - just click the play button. To see larger images of the pictures, click on the individual picture!

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Blueberry Festival

Each year, Brewton, Alabama has a Blueberry Festival. It is basically an arts and crafts festival, but they also have live musical entertainment, lots of food vendors, and lots of blueberry desserts (blueberry cobbler, blueberry ice cream, blueberry bread budding, etc.).

This year's festival was this past Saturday (06/16/2007), so we took the girls for a couple of hours before it got so sweltering hot! Here are a few shot of the girls from Saturday.

Rainbow

Brannon and I snuck away for a movie Saturday afternoon and on our way home, there was a beautiful rainbow.

New Additions

Brannon's mom and her husband recently got two Sugar Gliders. They are a marsupial and are very tiny - only weighing about 8 oz full grown. These are about 9 weeks old. They don't have names yet, but Bella calls them "the Babies"! They are actually quite cute in person!

Nature is all around us

One of the benefits of living in the "country", is that nature is all around us!!! Bella loves to watch the birds, catch bugs (much to my dismay), and see all the animals around us. We put out birdseed and corn for the birds, but the rabbits really like the corn. We have two rabbits that come around on a regular basis! I think it is a momma rabbit and a baby rabbit, just because of the size difference. Bella gets so excited when she spots one of the rabbits!

Here are a few pics of the rabbits!

Sights of the Land

As many of you know, we live in a very rural area. Farming is a way of life for many people around here, so I thought I'd post a few pics of the local crops!

This is wheat and it is ready to be cut.

This is corn...

These two pictures are of hay. If you look closely in the first picture - there is a tractor in the field baling the hay.

Cows are also a big commodity down here. Bella loves to look at the cows and she will say "cow" and "mooooo"!

Fun at the beach

Bella, Brooklyn and I went to the beach with their Nana (Brannon's mom, Dianne), their Great Grandmother (Brannon's mom's mom, Alma) and their Great Aunt (Brannon's mom's sister, Carolyn) and a little girl named, Kaylie. This was the first time that Bella and Brooklyn had been to the beach!

Bella liked running around in the sand and she'd let the water run over her feet and then run away squealing! Brooklyn didn't like water at all! We would

bend down to just let her feet touch the ground and as soon as the tips of her toes got close to the sand or water, she'd scream!! Kaylie really took to the water - even getting out in the Gulf in her float!

Bella and Kaylie having a snack at the condo. As you can see from this picture (and a few more in this post), Bella is into making smiley faces when

we take pictures. If you say "say cheese", the picture to the left is the result!

We went out onto the beach one night when the crowds were gone and just let the girls run around as they wanted and we took some pictures of them.

Spring is here....

and the birds are nesting! Here are our blue bird nests with their eggs. One nest has 4 eggs and one nest had 5 eggs. Unfortunately, one nest was abandoned and we believe the other has been as well. We think the cold snap we had confused the birds or something as the one bird was being very vigilant about sitting on her little eggs and we were just waiting for them to hatch, but we don't think they will! But we have a mockingbird nest in the rose bush and the martins are nesting in the gourds. Bella loves to put out birdseed for all the birds and then watch the birds eat all that she put out for them!

Oh What a Trip!

Over the woods and through the hills to Grandmother's house we go!!!!

That's right we packed up the Suburban and drove over 2,000 miles to see my Grandma in New Jersey! We had a great time and the girls were excellent travellers! We drove straight through on the way up and stopped over in North Carolina on the way back!


Beth and Grandma

Beth holding Bella, Grammie holding Brooklyn and Grandma

Beth, Bella, Brooklyn and Grandma

Pictures from the Aquarium

Here are some pictures from the Aquarium!

Bella in front of a couple of the exhibits - the first one is in front of the jelly fish exhibit, I'm not sure what the second one is....


One of the four Whale Sharks swimming over our heads! And one of the many sting rays that share the Whale Sharks' tank..


A Sting Ray in the "petting" pool and some very colorful fish from the Coral Reef.


Angel Fish and a Giant Grouper fish


Tiny Sea Horses


As we were getting ready to leave, Deepo, the Aquarium's mascot was walking around! Bella was quite fascinated, but didn't want to have her picture taken with him alone! So, this is Bella, Mommy, Brooklyn (not seen but in the sling I am wearing) and Deepo!