A Walk on the Wild Side...

A long promised excursion to the Bay Area finally took place and our animals got to hook up with real animals at the Oakland Zoo.  It's a great place to visit and spend the day -- much more to see than the Sacramento Zoo and definitely worth the car drive.

The sun bears were our first encounter.  That's Ting Ting sitting in her tree house.  She was rescued from China after her mom was killed by poachers.  

A docent shared with us that this gibbon had only recently started swinging again.  Its lifelong mate had passed away and for some time it would only sit in the tree and sulk.

Love this chimpanzee's balancing act!  The rest of the troop was on edge -- the dominant one was exhibiting territorial behavior (screaming, hollering, throwing things around) because of a pair of recent arrivals.

Dynamic Duo!

Both Coco & Little Man wanted to be a tortoise.

Little Man loved the ssssssssnakes!

Mom loved the fruit bats!!! These two kept sparring!

Happy to be in the sunshine and among God's creatures.

Ready --- Set ---

CRASH!

The petting zoo was wonderful for the kids .. our kids and the animal kids!

Face off!

You can tell by the grin who won!

Too bad CoCo doesn't smile like this when she gets HER hair combed!

Another Dynamic Duo!

Crossing the lily pads in the Children's Area.

This little hare helps kids hear what they hear -- much more with their big floppers.

The kids really enjoyed watching these creatures.

There were a lot of giraffes there -- too bad Meemz couldn't come along -- she's going through a giraffe phase.

Mom wanted to nap too!

We discovered a secret shire!

Do you think they had a good day? 

All things bright and beautiful, 

All creatures great and small, 

All things wise and wonderful: 

The Lord God made them all.

Shadow Games

We took a trip to Grandma's a while back.  Rather than stay cooped up watching TV, Dad took us on a drive to see some of his old haunts on Mare Island.  At one point, we stopped at a place where you could walk out a mile or so and take in the delta.  While soaking up the last of the sun's rays, the kids decided to create different words and images with their shadows. 

L-O-V-E

C-O-C-O

J-O-E

Cat!

                                           Pretty cool stuff.  Pretty cool day.

Happy Feast of All Saints! 

Today the church commemorates the lives of all the people who died in friendship with God.  They are the saints, known and unknown, living now and forever in the presence of God.  It is our hope to imitate the saints here on earth so we can be with them one day in Heaven.  

   As part of our annual All Saints Eve (Halloween) celebration at church, the children dressed up as a particular saint.  

Coco as St. Joan of Arc

Angel as St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Twitter as boy saint Dominic Savio

JoBoy as St. Longinus, who converted after piercing the side of Christ.

 All Saints, Pray for us!

 Fall Festivities

It's been a long ... long .. long time since we posted.  Mom didn't get on the girls to do it .. so it hasn't been done.  Now Mom is taking over. 

We were invited to a friend's house in Plymouth for a day of fall festivities: pumpkin carving, candy hunting, touring the farm ... 

It began with the candy hunt .. digging for Nerds & Laffy Taffy in a pile of leaves.

Then it was time to get the hands dirty ....

                 ... and sticky ...                  

... and gooey ...

BOO!  (Coco's pumpkin design)

Coco had fun carving her first pumpkin.  Angel decided to work on Joe's instead!

 Then Joe and his buddy Logan got distracted by another little friend ... a blue belly lizard! They caught him!

They decided to set it free in a tree ... then tried to climb after it  .. 

poor guy had to scramble to get away!

We all took a break to pray the rosary in thanksgiving for a beautiful day, good friends, our faith.

Then it was back to more fun .. a private tour of the Felix farm!  

When the animals called for their dinner, we obliged!

Then one more ride!

Thank you, Felix Family, for a wonderFALL day!