The Pittsburgh Zoo

We ventured to the zoo back in March, but I am just getting around to writing about it. Once again we just set a date and Jim took off from work. It turned out to be cold and rainy day.
These are the before pictures of us leaving.

This is a classic Parker pose. He does it so often I would qualify it as normal.


Parker was so excited to be at the zoo and to ride the escalator he bolted ahead of us.


We picked a cold and rainy day to tour the zoo. This is me with my umbrella and Preston bundled up as we strolled the grounds. Notice there is no one else in the picture.

Jim took his camera and he got some great shots. I guess the tiger needed a little morning nap.

We heard this loud noise and wasn't sure what it was until we heard the lion growling.

This black fabric was there and we thought maybe this is background for pictures, so we posed.
There was a baby elephant.

This gorilla sat close to the window and appeared to be pondering the things of the day.

This gorilla was the active one of the bunch. If you notice the carrots and greens, they had recently been fed. This guy ran to pick up some of the food and then threw it in the air. It was so funny to see. I don't know if it was game or if he didn't like what they served him.

The Pittsburgh zoo offers a small aquarium as part of the zoo experience. This was part of the reason we decided to go to Pittsburgh instead of DC.

This is a jellyfish under a black light. Jim did not use a flash. Pretty cool huh.

Some day maybe we will have an aquarium and put colorful fish in it.

This sea otter knew how to entertain visitors, he would swim by and put his fin in his mouth.

This is us at the end of the day. Preston looks grumpy. I had a headache and Parker gave one of his famous goofy grins. All three of us rested on the way home while Jim drove us.

A brief Good Mom Moment

The job of mother is tough job. I tend to get wrapped up in the day to day tasks of feeding them, making sure they are dry, get their rest, and other basic needs met. If you ask me about being a Mom I will usually be honest and tell you that my boys run circles around me and that I am frazzled. This is true. So the other day I had a good Mom moment where I thought to myself..... this is fun! This isn't so bad. Maybe I will survive after all.

Parker got a new bike for his birthday and wanted to go for a ride. I enjoy riding my bike. Jim took Preston so it was just me and Parker. He was able to do it himself. He had so much fun! He laughed and had smile on his face the entire time. At that moment I relaxed and thought this is fun. I am enjoying this part of being a Mom.

Just wanted to share my happy thoughts.

Some projects at the Rayburn's

I am so excited to have some new updates to our house. I bought a new mailbox the year we bought the house, in 2002. It finally got installed a few weeks ago. I had been doing some digging and told Jim the ground seemed soft and that it might come out easy. Well it was cemented in the ground, it took more than a shovel to get the old one out.

See that chunk of cement!

I wanted to try and Freecylce the remains, but Jim talked me out of it. The garbage man took the whole thing.


The finished project. Now we can a get a numbered reflector so the fire company can find us in the dark if ever we have a fire. Oh and we didn't use cement, so if it ever has to be fixed it should be much easier.

The screen door.

It always kind of slammed shut real loud. You had to unscrew to replace the windows with screens. One time the glass got broken so we were left with the screen year round. Then the cat managed to weaken the screen, so that he had an a kitty window with access to the outside. Then the bottom part got dented, so we really needed a new door.

So we put it on the list and went shopping. Jim figured he could fix it himself.

He did a great job and here is the new door. It has a screen that rolls up and down. It is so easy to use and the door is much more quiet.

Here is Stanley wishing he still had the kitty window to jump out of.

Thank you honey. I love the new door and mailbox!

A visit to Longwood Gardens

A few years ago I had ordered the Pennsylvania tourist guide in hopes of taking some day trips in my own area. One of the areas that interested me was Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia. I really wanted to see the Tulip displays. So once again we picked a day to go. I have picked some of my favorite pictures to share with you.

I traveled 4 hours and this is what I saw, a kitty!!!! They did not allow folks to take their own animals into the park, but we saw several cats roaming the grounds. This particular one was allowed in the house of Pierre Dupont and even let me pet him. A cat friendly place is my kind of place!

They planted pansies among the tulips. An interesting idea. It looked real pretty.

A few spots had these red tulips in the middle of all a different color. Jim and I couldn't figure out if this was an accident or planned.

I loved these white tulips. I never thought I would, since they have little color. I am definetly adding these to my garden next year.

The DuPont, also the founder of DuPont that makes chemicals traveled the world and gathered ideas to bring home. This is called the Italian garden. The blue you are seeing is blue tile (ok the blue is kind of hard to see in this picture), similar to the same type of material you would use inside your bathroom. The fountains turned off simultaneously and then turned back one. It was very fun to watch.

The idea gardens were full of ideas. They have planted lettuce in the middle of the flowers and used rose stems as a fence.

A bird of paradise. Isn't this the neatest bloom?


We found out that the bulbs are only grown for one year. So after these are done blooming they will pull out the plants, compost the bulbs and put something else that is blooming in the bed. We also found out they are very "recycling" minded at Longwood gardens. Our plastic cups at lunch were made from corn. They were able to compost the napkins, cups, plastic wear, straws and even some leftovers. I am intrigued by this and want to do some further research on how my cup becomes dirt.

There were some neat sculptures made from these shrubs. I wouldn't want anything this big in my own yard.