This morning we went to Micke's Grove Zoo and had the place to ourselves.
Libs loved seeing the animals and splashing in the puddles on this very misty day.
I was thrilled that the mountain lion was finally awake and about during our visit. We always hit it when he's either laying down or hiding in his lair.
Libs chatted with every animal she saw. Her favorite "game" was to tell us which animals were Mommy and which were Daddy.
Libi found several tortoises and she agreed to pose with this one.
The lighting was perfect today so we got lots of really cool photos. I have been thinking a lot about photography lately as I have many friends who touch up all of their photos before they post them. I do the opposite, I never touch up anything-- I post my photos as is. I would love to one day learn more about photoshop and other photo filters, but for now mine raw pics will have to do.
Here is a darling picture of Libs and her Daddy-- they have such fun together.
The lemurs were playful today...
Libi thought they were, "So cuuuuute!"
Since we left the stroller at home, Daddy had to carry her part of the time.
We all had lots of fun seeing how we measure up with the birds: here is Libi's wingspan,
Ron's, and
mine :)
Our little girl is quite chatty these days (what am I saying, she's always been chatty!)
She is still a cuddler and a love bug, so Mommy is happy!
The animal we saw the most of at the zoo were the squirrels. There weren't in cages or anything :)
Since we didn't pay for admission and there isn't anywhere to eat in the zoo, we felt that we needed to support them by visiting the gift stand. Libi was instantly drawn to the most annoying toy there-- the chomping hippo!
She figured out how to use it quickly and even made it talk. Fun for all!
We went to see Jammy's friends one more time on the way home.
We went home for nap and playtime-- I love how delicately she holds here hammer when she repairs things with Handy Manny.
In the evening we parted ways-- Libi stayed with Jammy and Granpa.
They had a visit from Bob and Renia after dinner. They brought Libs a really cute Christmas gift with bubbles, crayons, and shape cards all inside her very own lunch box.
Meanwhile Ron and I headed out to celebrate our anniversary again.
We couldn't decided where to eat so we let our Google Map of places we want to try decide for us.
We ended up at the strangest place on the way to Walnut Grove called Giusti's. It was featured on Diner's, Drive In's and Dives and it is mainly an Italian eatery. They do have some of the best bread I've ever eaten-- hence this ode to the basket of bread :)
The menu is small, but the portions are really generous-- every meal is served with home-made minestrone soup, a salad, salami, a bean salad, and a baked potato. We split the salmon and lamb specials and were very pleased with our meal!
It wasn't the most romantic place in the world, but I suppose it's who you are with not where you are that makes things romantic.
This is what the roof of the bar looks like-- kinda cool!
We had to do pictures with "Guy" out front-- what a fun addition to the place.
We took a few shots of the sign before we decided to see what Walnut Grove was like.
It was a very small town, if you blink you would miss it, but they did have this remarkable light display right off the main road. Jesus looks quite impressive all done up in lights.
