Nashville Zoo

E's college friend Sarah flew into town for the weekend and their friend Jessica drove up from Huntsville, AL to visit. Jessica has two little ones, so they decided to go to the zoo Saturday afternoon. Charlie and I joined them (and we even signed up for membership since it's only about 10 minutes from our house - they even gave me an educator discount, nice!).

Kenyon College - E, Sarah, Jessica (and Jessica's husband Mike and their son Joshua.  Their daughter Kate was in a stroller that didn't make the picture)

The sister self portrait: 

The zoo closed at 4pm that day, so we went through everything pretty quickly, but I really couldn't get enough of the flamingos.  They were just so close! 

Maybe too close...watch your fingers CQ! 

Cute little meerkat.  I'm looking forward to our membership and hope to get back to the zoo again soon.

And I don't want to leave out our favorite animal - Winnie (I had to say favorite in case she ever reads this...)  Yesterday morning I looked over to see these two gazing out the window together. 

Nala

Charlie and I got to see E and Mark yesterday afternoon since they were using up a vacation day.  I happened to have my camera with me so I got a few shots of Mark's massive dog Nala.  She is really sweet and actually great around Charlie, but I was definitely intimidated by her size.  I think I am very happy with my small cat.  :)  I forget her breed name but she is purebred. 

Nala plays and plays with Briley, who of course sees no size difference. 

Charlie is really into human or pet brushes... 

And so Winnie girl doesn't feel left out, some pictures from this morning: 

Poor, poor Winnie.  Always being terrorized by Charlie.  She usually sits there and takes it for a while and then relocates. 

But of course CQ comes chasing after.  

She finally retreated to higher ground, out of Charlie's reach.

And speaking of animals (this is a real stretch), I accidentally made Charlie into a mermaid the other day while dressing him in overalls.  I kept wondering why I couldn't get the top straps fastened.  HA!

Recent Happenings

1. Our wise kitty keeps curling up next to the heater.

 2.  We had carpet installed downstairs on Friday.  Let the playing begin, Charlie!

3.  Pat used his Big Green Egg to smoke 6 massive pork butts for Vandy's Saturday tailgate. 

4.  Charlie's enjoying the fall weather.  I have so many cute pictures of him (as you know)... I really need to get back into scrapbooking.

Bags: Winnie and Charlie

Charlie finds and plays with Winnie's toys way more than she does. He also found a shopping bag yesterday which he thought was very entertaining. It reminded me of how Winnie loves paper bags too. Going back a few years (that is right, Winnie is almost 5)...

Winnie and Charlie

The two of them have been enjoying some quality time together lately:

PS Yesterday at the doctor Charlie weighed in at 9 pounds and 5 ounces!  Yay - he is bulking up.  :o)

(Topless Photos)

We went for a nice long walk in relatively warm weather earlier today.  Charlie felt quite warm when we got back home so we got him down to his diaper...  What a cutie!

'Sup

Winnie recovered from a morning trip to the Vet (just her yearly check up with her temperament and also rabies shot) and enjoyed the sunshine.

Winter Weekend

We got about 6 inches of snow during the day Friday and when Pat and I got home from work an unknown nice neighbor had cleared our driveway for us.  There was still snow on the ground from the previous snow storm, so it's quite the winter wonderland outside.  I spent yesterday morning working on some more thank you notes while Pat retouched the nursery base boards. They had been discolored by the hardwood floor guys...I'll try and post a picture of the floors in the next day or so, they look great.  After some yummy chicken salad sandwiches, we headed out for a nice walk and I brought my camera.

 A little stream along the way.

At the bottom of the hill is where we catch the train each morning.  Evidently it's quite the popular sledding spot!

We got home from our walk and Winnie was sitting in the living room, practically begging us to start a fire.  Yes, we happily obliged.

Kind of looks like she is plotting an evil plan right now, right?

We had a great Saturday evening of burgers and roasted asparagus (seemed healthier than burger and fries) and football.  How 'bout them JETS?!?!

Today we're taking down the Christmas tree and putting away holiday decorations.  Lots to do, lots to do.