Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Our Garden

This is the first year we have put out a garden.  We tore down our old shed and put up a new one.  We decided to turn the ground where the old shed was into our garden area.  It has worked out great.  We (well...mainly James) planted potatoes, various tomatoes, red onions, white onions, radishes, carrots, corn, watermelon, peppers, and strawberries.  So far we have enjoyed some onions and radishes. 




We decided to plant some herbs as well.  James and Monkey, with a little help from Lulu and Lil, built a bench to sit our pots on.  Lulu and Lil, with a little help from Mom, planted lavender, basil, mint, aloe, oregano, and thyme.  I really like how it all turned out.  It looks really nice on my patio.




The girls have been catching fireflies each evening.  They put them in their bug boxes they made with their Daddy last year.  Each night they ask if they can keep them.  But we open the lid and watch the all fly away.  It's fun to watch our kids enjoy things that we enjoyed when we were young too.




Thursday, June 5, 2008

More About Vacation

Well tomorrow is finally here.  I am seeing that summer is going to keep me very distracted from the computer.  That will be a good thing though.

While we were on vacation we went back to Waccatee Zoo in Myrtle Beach.  The "zoo" was birthed from one family's collection of exotic animals as pets.  It is very inexpensive and you can get really close to the animals.  Most you can feed too.  The girls really enjoyed the zoo two years ago and this year was no different.




Notice the big "CAUTION MAY BITE" sign.  No fear for this Daddy and Lil.  Several times she had her hand all the way through the fences to either feed or touch the animals.  So far she has never gotten bit.  Except for the neighbor's dog!

We went to Barefoot Landing one day.  They have a store called Teddy Bear Circus (I think).  It is like Build-A-Bear.  The girls had to jump in order to stuff their animals.  Lil would not do it so Monkey jumped for her.





Lulu adopted a zebra named "Lulu".  Monkey adopted a giraffe named "Ginger".  Lil adopted an elephant named "Dave". 

We also went to Alligator Adventure at Barefoot Landing.  We all really enjoyed this place.  There were over 1,000 alligators and crocodiles.  Kind of creepy at times....  Everywhere you walked you were surrounded by them.  Monkey even got to pet one during one of the demonstration shows!


After that we went to see them feed the alligators.  Two girls walked out a little bridge and began tapping on the side.  The alligators began swarming that area.  They feed them chicken.  They would jump up out of the water to snap the chicken.  It was really cool to watch.



After the feeding they all swam back off.   James told Lulu one was looking at her.  Thought she might be a nice snack!  There was even a crocodile there who had been born without a tail.  It was so funny to look at.  Unfortunately I got away without taking a picture of "Bob".

Another highlight of our trip was an evening we spent at "Surf's Up".  All five of us played laser tag.  I carried Lil the whole time with my vest and gun.  Needless to say I was hot, sweaty, and out of breath by the end of it.  The girls really enjoyed it though.  As did Daddy!  They also had a rock climbing wall there.  Monkey and Daddy climbed the wall.  It was Monkey's first time.  Now she wants to start rock climbing.  Lulu has decided that she would like to give it a try as well.  Here are some pics of Monkey making her first climb.





I have some pictures from the Medieval Dinner Show we went to but they are on my other camera.  I have not loaded them yet.  When I get to it I will post those photos as well.

After this weekend I am sure I will have some more fun family photos too...