My Nieces

The last two days I've been able to enjoy some time with my sister Heidi and her two girls at our parent's house. I love my family and have so much fun spending time with them- regardless what we do. The girls love to be outside, go for four-wheeler rides and pick wildflowers. They're so much fun to watch and every time I see them they've changed so much from the last visit.

These are my nieces, aren't they gorgeous?

This is the beautiful and adventurous Berlin

This is the lovely and imaginative Trynica

And Andy has enjoyed spending time with the girls too :)

I kinda like them. :) I kinda like my nephews too... can't wait to see them in a few days! (Except Gabe who is in S. Korea...MISS YOU!)

Feline Experience

My favorite part of the zoo has always been seeing the lions and tigers, but they always seem to be hiding and I never get a good look at them through all the layers of metal, gorges, wire and sometimes glass.

Well yesterday I got to experience lions and tigers up close, literally within touching distance. Separated by only chain link fence. Exhilarating. I'm positive that at any zoo you would never been allowed to be so close to wild animals. Experiencing this place is definitely not like a touring a zoo- it was intense.

The rescue is a facility that provides permanent homes for exotic cats that have been rescued from abused owners. They have nearly 200 cats there, and it costs no more than a movie to take a tour and come close enough to the animals to touch them. It was the second time I'd been there, the first time was a year ago: I went on a field trip with some kids between the ages of 3 & 6. At the time I was more concerned about holding onto the kid I had in each hand than observing the animals. Each adult was paired up with two kids- I don't think I'd ever gripped a child's hand as firmly as I had theirs. Especially when we walked between two cages and had a lion and tiger paces us earnestly on either side. Yeah. Holy crap.

Yesterday was the second trip. I'd wanted to take Andy there since I'd been the first time, I knew he would like it. We went with some friends of ours and their three kids. At the first tour stop the guide told us that the lions will stalk the little ones, its their instinct. We didn't totally believe it until one of the lions whole demeanor changed when the little ones came by and eyed them like they were lunch, the look in the face was freaky. Here's a picture of one of the lions staring down one of the kids, just before he growled at him. (It's a little hard to see his face but his eyes were scary.)

And this one was hunting us. Can you see him? I couldn't believe how well he blended in- for how big he was. We could hear him growling before we could actually see him.

Did you know that tigers actually get larger than lions? Yeah, me neither. Some of tigers we saw were 600 lbs!

See the trail between the cages in this picture? Yeah, we walked through that- for a long time. And they tell you stay 3 feet away from the cages... That trail is barely larger than 3 feet wide! The lion in the picture followed us, the second picture is literally how close we were to some of the animals. It's not a good picture, but it gives you the idea. It's not zoomed in. You literally could've touched them. Not that I wanted to!

These pictures don't really do the experience justice. It was incredible to be so close to the animals. To see the sheer mass of their size. To be warned to move along quickly by the tour guide when the animals showed signs of aggravation. To hear how loud a small growl is and imagine what a roar would sound like.

Oh, did I mention that a cougar escape from here last year and was never found? Holy crap!

Project

So I haven't blogged in awhile, sorry about that. I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Things have been crazy with work, normal life stuff, and trying to "fix up" our house as we're thinking about putting it on the market soon. So I've been doing lots of cleaning, fixing little odds and ends trying to get things just right. I didn't realize how filthy my windows were until I started cleaning them, or how much a few paint touchups can make a room look so much nicer.

Our biggest project was the outside of our house. We attempted landscaping last year and just let it go- so we had to bascially start over again this year. I've decided that I like, and dislike, gardening. I like that it makes my house look nicer, and I like doing things that I can see the outcome progress; but I don't think I have the patience to be really good at it. We're definitely not perfectionists about it, but it was fun to do together.

We laid new rock in our driveway and expanded it a bit.

Most of my lilies I planted last year in the back flower bed came up nicely again this year, I only had to replant two, and we laid new mulch. Our bush still needs to get trimmed though.

This is our front of the house. We planted the "tree/bush" and laid mulch, last year we planted the hostas plants. I still want to get a couple of flowers to add to the corner bed -maybe. I haven't decided yet. We also hung some potted flowers.

Our front flower bed was kind of an experiment. It turned out okay, I don't totally love it, but it doesn't look bad either. I planted some impatience- but I didn't have many colors to choose from.

We also planted two trees in the front of the house. They still need some mulch at the bottom though.

So here it is, the finished product. Now I've got to paint a couple rooms inside and it'll be ready!