Fair warning- zoo picture overload. For once, I wasn't the photographer at an outting.
A while back, we took a quick last minute trip to Virginia to visit my family. I didn't realize that its been more than two years since the Giant had been to my hometown. While visiting family, we decided to bear the 100 degree heat and swing by the Mill Mountain Zoo with Nana and Skipper. This was Cheyanne's first zoo trip. I'm pretty excited that I can write down in her baby book it was my little hometown zoo on top of our mountain.
We braved the crowds of two dozen people and explored the zoo. Roanoke's zoo may not be much to some, but to a little girl that loves animals of any kind and frankly had never experienced non-domesticated animals that up close, she loved it.
This is the Mill Mountain Zoo tiger. For real.
Here, I was explaining to Cheyanne that the tiger was hot so "Don't touch. Hot." Of course she then had to touch it to prove to herself it was indeed hot. "Ouch."
Skipper and Chey checking out the prairie dogs.
Who's ever seen or for that matter heard of a red panda? Roanoke has one, of all things. To me, it looked more like a big fluffy raccoon. I wish I had a better picture to show you.
If you go to the Mill Mountain Zoo, there is one thing you must do while there. You must ride the train. Making two loops around the zoo lasting about 5-10 minutes, we saw lions and tigers and bears… oh my. Just kidding. We saw a coyote and vultures and a possible cougar-like animal.
Despite the lack of her smiles in these pictures, she actually loved the choo-choo ride.
We, of course, waved at Nana and Skipper as we rode by the station for round two.
Come on kid. Give me a smile.
I know she liked the choo-choo because she threw quite the tantrum when we had to get off at the station, saying "Choo choo!" over and over again as we walked away. At least we gave the conductor a good laugh.
Daddy and Chey standing over the choo choo tracks.
"Fine. If I can't ride the choo choo, then I'm taking my new toy train and I'm outta here."
Thanks Nana and Skipper for a our first zoo visit!
We're home. Well we're back home from being home I mean. We had a fantastic weekend in Roanoke with my family. It wasn't a long enough trip, but weekend trips rarely are so no surprise there. Of course it wasn't the same without my sister, but thank God for technology. Skype was a lifesaver all weekend so she didn't miss much. It was pretty comical when the whole family would gather around my mom's little laptop screen, all strategically sitting in locations where we could still be seen on the webcam. T in Cali, Mom in the lounge chair, the Giant in the rocker, me on the floor, dad in the recliner, and the grandparents in the background, oh and of course Journey and Kaya wandering in and out of their respective coast rooms- one happy little family- multiple times throughout the weekend!
I will admit, I'm a horrible blogger. I don't know why I keep a camera on me most of the time, because I am horrible about taking pictures when I really need to. I mean to. I just somehow seem to forget to until its too late, like now! But I'll post the few that I have from the weekend and I'll just tell you about the rest.
My brother just recently purchased his first house, a classic old Roanoke style 2 story (with basement and attic!) fixer upper in ideal location Grandin Rd. It even has a great view of the Roanoke Star! Don't know what I'm talking about?! It's only Roanoke's pride and enjoy. You don't visit Roanoke without visiting the Mill Mountain Star! It even has its own Wikipedia entry- "The Roanoke Star, also known as the Mill Mountain Star, is the world's largest freestanding illuminated man-made star, constructed in 1949 at the top of Mill Mountain in Roanoke, Virginia. It was the largest star ever assembled until the El Paso Star was completed in El Paso, Texas.[2] However, the Mill Mountain Star still holds the claim to world's largest illuminated man-made free-standing star, as the El Paso Star lies flat on the ground. After construction of the star, Roanoke was nicknamed "Star City of the South". I really should have taken pictures!
(Not his view, but close to it)
He has lots of work to do on it, but it will be a fantastic home when he's done. Wood floors, full sitting porch, full second floor sitting porch, soon to be level backyard, producing garden.... You know you are a Bailey when you have planted a full growing garden BEFORE you've even finished painting your first bedroom or hanging your first picture :). We have our priorities.
Saturday I had a get together at my parent's house, technically in my dad's man cave, which he willingly (ha!) let me borrow for the party. I think I could do a post on just my dad's mancave and its "uniqueness," fully designed and decorated by my dad in eclectic antiques, smokey cigar themed billiard table area, and all that is Hokie orange and maroon. Oh and most important to note to grasp just a little bit of a mental appreciation for this mancave would be the green handpainted (with the help of yours truly) football field flooring- with white field stripes and all. It pretty much rocks!
However, back to my weekend. Saturday. In honor of my girlfriend Angela's wedding that is just a few weeks away and a rare visit from our friends the Swartzendrubers, I decided to throw a mini 7 year reunion party for my high school class. I didn't plan too much ahead or probably more people would have been able to come, but we had a great time with the group that came. It was wonderful to see everyone and meet all the new little faces that have joined our group. So many kiddies. I was especially excited to meet baby Elliot Swartzendruber. Born on valentine's Day to my bestie Cara ( in CHICAGO :( ) I had not gotten to meet this little chunker boy until now. He melted my heart with his rolls! Those Swartz' sure do make sweet babies.
My dad was a big help in the cookout prep
So was the Giant...
Some of my high school friends
Lil G Swartz found his own seat
The infamous Swartz fam
The only picture of me and the giant from the entire weekend that I remembered to take
the Giant and Lil E
And last but not least, our trip wouldn't be complete without a photo of Journey, resting under newspapers...
So that was the highlight of our trip. Visiting visiting visiting! So good to see friends. Even better to see family. Some friends will always be considered family. We had a fantastic time and now its on to our work week. We are simply working for the weekends!
