Zoo Trip

Today (Friday) Kate and I met my sister and her family down in Denver for a few hours at the Denver Zoo.



Kate and I arrived a little early so we took the opportunity to check out the wolf exhibit...




...and some of the reptiles...





Aw, don't those skinks look so cute cuddled up like that? :-)

When Dianna, Heath, and the kids arrived, we got ourselves organized and headed out, stopping first by the lion exhibit.



Julie volunteered to be in charge of the map. Here she shows us where we are (the lion exhibit obviously)...



And here she compares one of the big "You Are Here" maps to her own carried one...



Everest seemed to have fun too. Here's a few pix of him with his Aunt Kate...

Having some lunch...



Posing by the water buffalo statues...



And looking at the duck pond...



Later, the kids and even the adults (sans me who shot pictures instead) took a ride on the carousel!




After the carousel, Everest was pointing out the safari train that rolled by - didn't get a picture of it though...



Though he did keep calling the train a "bus." :-)

At one point, Julie spotted a tiny little mouse snooping around...



...and Everest tried to feed it some of his snacks. :-)



Another fun time was when Dianna and I took Everest in to visit the lorikeets...



Dianna bought some nectar to feed the lorikeets, who lapped the stuff up!



Other cool animals that we saw included a coatl...



A grizzly bear...



A kangaroo (napping)...



And an elephant...



Now for some rapid fire pictures of us at the zoo...









After the zoo, we stopped in at a pizzeria that Emily recommended to Kate, called Pasquini's.



I'd say the show-stealer there was the massive calzones that Kate and Dianna ordered. They were huge - way bigger than either of them realized! :-)



Everest had his first taste of bruschetta with tomatoes and cheese.



And I guess we'll finish up with a picture of me and Julie at the restaurant...



Keep an eyeball out on my YouTube channel too! I made a number of videos of various animals while we were there and I'm hoping to get 'em posted on YouTube sometime soon.

As always, thanks for reading and hope you're having a great day!

June Update

Well, so much for the idea that I'd have lots of free time after school was over. :-)

Okay, so the coolest news to share is that I finally received my diploma from Colorado State!





So now I've got the official document in my hands - they can't call 'take-backs.' It's all mine!!! Huzzah!

Another tidbit is that Kate and I signed up for a summer class in ASL (American Sign Language) through the City Recreator. Our instructor, Eric, was born deaf and thus the entire class is taught in a non-speaking environment...which is both challenging and invigorating at the same time. I always feel apprehensive just before going to the class (which is held every Thursday night) and wonder if I should bother going. But every time I leave the class, I'm excited trying to converse with Kate using all the new signs that we learned. It's proving to be a lot of fun - Eric likes putting his students on the spot, but he does so with humor that keeps us from feeling (too) embarressed. We're about halfway through the class at this point.

Let's see...

Last thing just for fun. Kate and I organized a big trip to the Denver Zoo a couple weekends ago. Our friends Bill, Tammy, Ron, and Arne (along with two of the Jamtgaard kids, Rohan and Moira) came with us. We had a great time! Here's some pictures to prove it. :-)

















Naturally, my favorite critter at the zoo is the wolf...



I've always been a big fan of wolves. There's something about them that makes me all emotional and poetic. :-) I love 'em.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to post something else real soon.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day!