My Weekend

It is just after ten pm as I begin to type this.  I won't type for long - it's already late and I need to get to bed soon...

But I just want to say - this has been a lovely weekend.  I was going to say perfect - but nothing is perfect.  But still - this came close. 

For one thing, we had no - absolutely no - obligations. 

For another thing, I just bought a new 55-200mm telephoto zoom lens for my camer and I'm happier than the proverbial kid (or my husband) in a candy store.

And so this is what we did this weekend:

On Saturday we took the kids to the zoo.  We get a family membership each year now, and it's well worth it.  Not only did I go with the new lens on my camera, but I also got the kids each a disposable camera so they could take their own pictures. 

I taught them how to use the cameras the night before, so they were rarin' to go once we got to the zoo and I handed them their equipment.  They each took several pictures before we even got past the ticket takers.  Julia shot some lovely images of my lower body (thank you, daughter) and a nice one of Bill's sneakers.  Hee hee hee...I think I had more fun watching them than they had taking pictures.  They were so serious about it. 

Here's Julia pointing to the baby giraffe.  The baby was born on May 5th - he's adorable...

Isn't he?

Alex...hanging out near the farm animals....

They ran out of film about halfway through the trip.  Alex was pretty upset, but I told him he could tell me what he wanted me to take pictures of and I'd do it for him.  Julia just chose not to believe me - that she could press that button all she wanted but it wouldn't take any more pictures.  She insisted on hanging on to it a while longer.  At some point she finally surrendered it.

We were there for about two hours.  In addition to the baby giraffe, there were three baby emus as well - they were born a couple months ago, I think.  Here there are...

After the zoo, we went out to eat, and then went home. 

We dropped off the kids' cameras and basically hung out for a while...I picked up the pictures later that afternoon and had a grand old time looking at their work.  I'll scan some of those pictures in this week - they are priceless.  I put them into two photo albums and had them tell me about each picture...typed up their words and inserted them into the sleeves that faced each picture (so left page had text, right page had picture)...so now they each have a chronicle of that day.

That night Bill put the kids to bed so I could soak in the tub.

Today - well, since it's getting late, I'll just jump to afternoon.  We took the kids fishing at a pond down the road.  Alex has learned to cast and Julia knows ow to reel, at least.  In fact, today, Alex was more interested in dancing around in the sand than he was in waiting for the fish to bite.  He just wanted to cast the worm out and reel it in.  Julia, however, was pretty patient and reeled in three or four sunfish mostly on her own.

That's my girl!

And after that, we stopped to get ice cream on the way home.

That's my boy!

A weekend of simple pleasures. 

Damn near perfect.