Jurassic Gardens

Well, the month of June turned out to be crazily busy... I didn't get a chance to journal anything on this blog, but we had plenty of church activities (carnival and vacation bible school), spent time in the swimming pool, Ben had some sleep-overs with his friends, Gregg's corporate football team won second place in the tournament for VML, Alicia and her family came to visit us in K.C. for the first time, we went to Oklahoma for a week to celebrate the Fourth of July with family, we came home from Oklahoma with a new family member - beagle puppy named Kasey Royal, we had a water balloon fight, went on more trips to the library, etc. etc.


Yesterday, Gregg and I took the kids to Powell Gardens to see the Jurassic Gardens! It was a really neat exhibit with life-size dinosaurs compliments of the Lost World Studios. Did you know that Missouri has a State Dinosaur? It's name is "Hypsibema Missouriense" - a duck billed herbivore discovered in Missouri in 1942.

Basketball Tournament

Gregg played in a basketball tournament for VML. His shirt number was 23, and he did a great job of ironing it on the morning of the game - tee hee! Gregg and his team members met the actual day of the tournament... They didn't know each other - hadn't practiced together or anything. I think that they did well under the circumstances!

Here's Gregg passing to a team member.

Making a basket!

I was really impressed by Gregg's three-point shots - woot woot!

Team VML lost their first game, won their second and third games, and then lost their fourth. After two losses, the team is out of the tournament...

The kids were excited to watch their daddy playing basketball - they were very proud!
I love this picture because everyone is looking up at the basket, including the ref, in anticipation of the imminent basket!

My Night at the Museum

I spent a wonderful night at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art! I was volunteering for a retro party in honor of the new addition to the museum - the Bloch Building. It was a "members-only" event and I was able to attend the party before my volunteer shift.

There were several bands set-up around the museum providing the live music for the evening. My favorites were the swing band (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke, pictured below) and an alternative rock band (Sometimes Three, also pictured below).

"Four Fried Chickens and a Coke" playing in front of the Nelson Atkins.

"Sometimes Three" playing on the terrace behind the Nelson Atkins.
Here is a front view of the Nelson Atkins building at sunset. There is a large, square pool of water that stands in front of the buildings that provides a phenomenal reflection!
This is the Bloch Building at sunset - the guest of honor, if you will! This is the new building that was being revealed to the art museum members first before the public.I also took some photos of the buildings at night because I absolutely love the reflections! I try to use reflections in my nature photography as well!

I was so happy to be able to volunteer for this event! I had never been to the Nelson Atkins Museum before this evening, and I was thoroughly impressed. I enjoyed the live music, the museum provided finger foods and drinks, and I got to see the Marching Cobras - K.C.'s Drumline perform! They are awesome!

My volunteer shift began at 10:00pm and ended at Midnight - I was in charge of late check-ins, which there weren't any - no one was checking in as late as 10:00pm. So, I had the fun job of handing out the party favors. I had a lady ask me to sign up to volunteer through the Nelson Atkins Museum so that we could work together again - I had so much fun that I'm thinking of doing just that!

My Birthday at the Zoo

This year, I asked to go to the zoo for my birthday! I know, I know, shouldn't the kids be asking to go to the zoo? Well, I guess I just wanted to subtract a few years from my age rather than add another one! So, we went to the zoo!

My favorite thing, by far, was the sea lion show!
Vince, the sea lion is one smart little guy. He can stand on his front flippers,

He can speak,

He can jump really high,

And he can do back-flips!

One more picture of Vince standing on his front flippers. He was soooooo close to my camera that I could've reached out and touched him! He kept moving around though, so it was kind of difficult to keep track of him through the lens of my camera.

This is an East African Crowned Crane - he is quite a ham! He just stood still and posed for me!

Can't go to the zoo without seeing the gorillas. This was the first time I'd ever seen a gorilla climb up a tree and then hop back down - pretty cool!

The hippos were really charming, showing off their teeth and swimming around in circles!

The lions were lazy, as usual - I think they sleep something like 20 hours each day?

There were other animals that I wanted to see, but couldn't get close enough to appreciate them... The zoo is so spread out that it seems like there's a mile walking distance between each exhibit. We walked and walked and walked to see my favorite animal - the giraffe, only to find a couple of giraffes that you'd need binoculars to see.

I still had a wonderful birthday this year! Gregg and the kids surprised me with a cake, cards, and an i-pod! We ate lunch together before going to the zoo. Plus, I got special treatment at home - the kids actually offered to clean their rooms! Alex is on a cleaning kick right now! We usually visit the zoo once each year, so we'll try for the giraffes again next year.

Goslings, Goslings Everywhere!

The kids and I had errands to run this morning - no big surprise! After errands, we decided to stop by Migliazzo Park to play for awhile. The park and recreation crew had drained half of the park's pond to work on some repairs. We saw all kinds of animals running all over the place - they were displaced since their pond was half empty... We saw squirrels, ducks, geese, and goslings, goslings everywhere!

I spotted the goslings, gathered the kids, and told them to follow me to take some photographs! The other parents and their children followed us, and they had some bread to feed the geese. One lady gave Ben, Alex, and Christian each a slice of bread - Christian decided to eat his bread rather than feed it to the geese...!

We were inches away from these cute little babies! The adult geese were hissing because we were all really close to the goslings, but they were also eating because they were so hungry. Mixed emotions!

And, yes, the kids did get to play on the playground equipment too! That was the main reason for stopping at the park - the goslings were just an added bonus!