Art Museum
We finally made it to the local art museum, and it's definitely going in our regular rotation of outings! It was a much larger and higher quality collection than we were expecting with great works from every era and from all over the world. For our first visit, we just did an exploratory tour and breezed through the museum just to get a feel for what's there. Granted, we got pulled in by a few things and just had to stop and read signs, but we spent almost two hours poking around the galleries and courtyards. We intend to revisit the museum to focus on just one or two exhibits per trip.

Classic pose with the zoo statuary!

Zoo
Everybody loves the zoo! A couple of the highlights included the hippo being back on exhibit (his space was being renovated the last few visits), and actual sightings of the elephants and the tiger (they're usually hiding).

We had to get a photo with the elephant,
my personal favorite.

 However, this time we spent most of our time and were totally fascinated by the birds in residence. Especially when we discovered a walk-through aviary down a path we hadn't noticed before! Bug also decided to work on her photography skills during this trip and caught a few great pics:

Spoonbills are such funky looking birds.

  

This gorgeous red-crested turaco was one of our favorites in the aviary.

Bug even managed to capture him spreading his wings!

Wednesday Church Night
We've recently decided to transition to a different church. We've got a variety of reasons, but the real driving force for making the move was Monkey and Bug's (completely valid) dissatisfaction with the youth group and the new youth pastor (nothing immoral or inappropriate, but they didn't feel like they fit in with the group, and this youth pastor didn't seem like he was going to create an atmosphere conducive to healthy spiritual growth).

We've attended the new church's traditional service a few times (and loved it and the pastor), and this past week we decided to try out the Wednesday night offerings. Everybody loves it! Monkey and Bug had a blast at youth group. I knew it was going to be good when, within moments of arriving, another 6th grade girl spotted them ("More 6th grade girls! Whoohoo!"), introduced herself, and insisted "Come meet my friends!" They were instantly plugged into a gaggle of middle school girls who they stuck with for games, dinner, and a special speaker who happened to be their martial arts instructor! They also knew a handful of other kids from various sports teams they've been on, and found out about a middle school girls small group Bible study that they want to get involved in. (I just need to find out the details.) Meanwhile, Lion and I had a lovely time making new friends (this church has homeschoolers!), and getting involved in the children's and adult ministries (Bible video, discussion, and crafts for Lion; Mere Christianity book discussion for me).

We've settled into "the usual routine." Here in the land of eternal summer that means a steady stream of park days, pool dates, and beach days! We're continuing our weekly pool dates with our home schooling friends, and the girls have asked that Mondays be designated outing days. Here's a few shots from our most recent outings:

They discovered a great climbing tree at a park
not far from home (it also has a playground,
 picnic tables, shade, and bathrooms,
 so we'll definitely be going again)

Gotta love a beach that thinks it's a swimming pool!

"Hey, Mom! We're digging the Mines of Moria!"
(Don't worry they stopped before they found a Balrog.)

It wouldn't be a real beach day without somebody getting buried!

Run! Kick! Run!
A recent weekend was one sporting event after another--especially for Lion! On Friday evening Daddy and Lion had a rematch race on level ground (really level--this 5k took place on an air field). Daddy won this round! But only by 30 seconds, and Lion says she was gaining on him. More impressively, while Lion was 1st place in her own girls' age group, she was also in 3rd place for all runners under 19--only two teenage boys were faster!

Lion crossing the finish line
(Photo courtesy of the wife of the guy finishing behind a tiny girl)

The girls had their first soccer games of the season! They're all doing well and having fun. They're all continuing to improve their skills, and Lion's excited to actually be on a team this year (last year she was stuck on a waitlist, but Monkey and Bug's coach let her practice with them). We've actually lived here long enough that the girls arrived at their first practices and discovered they already knew people!

Lion is actually in a different age group, so on a different team,
but they all ended up in the same color jerseys!

Then on Sunday Lion decided to try out one of USATF's developmental meets for cross country (because they're all on Sunday mornings, she won't be competing in all of them--just a few leading up to the championship meet). The event for her age group is a 3k, and Lion ran an amazing race! She told me she was planning to go just to get a feel for the course and not worry about being competitive, "but, Mommy, I was just born for running!" The next runner in her age group crossed the finish line two minutes behind her, and the next female her age was almost three minutes behind her! Go, Lion!

Here's a shot from the race before she left the pack in the dust.