Animals and Good News

Emily and I have been spending the month of August in Atlanta. That means my birthday and our anniversary were spent there. As has become the tradition, to celebrate my birthday, we went to the zoo. It was great they had all sorts of animals. I got to see my first Pandas. That was cool. They won't be around much longer as they are a doomed species. They had a grown male and female as well as a cub that is approximately the size of a small dog. I'm not sure how old because pandas are small as kittens when they are born. Here's the male.


I particularly liked the gorillas. They have a huge group. I'd guess about 20 or so in one group and then another 4 bachelors they keep in another pen. I got to see them fed. The Zoo Keeper stood on top of the observation booth and threw fruit to all the gorilla's that were all standing spread out waiting their turn. the keeper started with the Greyback. Then moved on to the others. It was cool to watch. Here's the Zoo Keeper and then them standing around. The big one in the front was the grey back.


This bird was in a pin with a whole bunch of birds. You walked into their enclosure and this one was just sitting on a branch a couple of inches from the banister.

This tiger was playing in the water and then walked right at us as you can see. Once it got to the glass, it turned peed all over the glass, then stalked off. It was really cool to see.

Here's a couple more animals we saw.


The one on the left is a warthog. The right is the crazy Lily. The one on the bottom is the munchkin Kenzie.

For our anniversary, Emily and I went to the Atlanta Aquarium. It claims to be the largest aquarium in the world as well as has the largest single tank. They have a strong argument. Their main attraction is a tank that was built to house 6 fully grown whale sharks. It currently only has 4 not full grown ones. They say the largest they have is 25 feet long. I tell you it was massive. They said a full grown one is 30 feet. The small fish in the picture are about 2 feet long. This picture was taken from a room that claimed to have the largest single window. I don't know if that's true but it was huge. One of these whale sharks was not even half the length of the window. It was cool.

Here are a few of the other creatures in that tank. These pictures were taken from a tunnel running through the tank. The saw fish was particularly cool.



Here's the beauty that has made the last 4 years of my life heaven. I love you Emily!


Now that you've looked at all my pictures, here's the great news. I am in the midst of turning in all of my med school applications. The great news is that I got an interview invitation from Rochester. Yeah!!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I went and saw Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince yesterday. It was amazing. I thought everything was very well done. They kept the essentials of the story. I am just a little concerned about how they will resolve a few things in the next flicks. I'll save my criticism for a little later so that I don't ruin the film. I thought it was well worth the wait though. It was probably the best done so far. They just keep getting better and better.

Black Quilt

This is the black flower quilt that I loved to do. As you can see, I just took one of the tiny flowers on the front and reproduced it 5 times much much bigger. It turned out great. Enjoy the photos.

My weekend adventure

This weekend Emily, Jeff, Cindra, Olivia and I went on an adventure. We went to Palmyra, Kirtland, and Niagra Falls. We had a great time. On Sunday, we headed out and stopped in Palmyra. We made our first stop at the Hill Cumorah. The monument there is really cool. Unfortunately, our camera battery died. So this is the only picture we got there. The monuments off to my left.


The next place we went was the Sacred Grove. It was an amazing experience. It's not hard to picture what happened there and it's not hard to see why it was done there. It's a gorgeous place teaming with the spirit. I hope everyone gets an opportunity to visit there someday. We didn't take any pictures in the grove, but we took a number on the outskirts and at the home they have built there. Here are a few.



Emily really likes this picture of me so I thought I'd put it in.


After visiting Palmyra, we hit the road for Kirtland. When we got there, we went over to Lake Erie and played on the shore. It was crazy to see a lake that looked like the ocean. I mean it was ocean like in that you could see nothing but the water on the horizon. Here's a couple of pictures.



This is me and Jeff skipping rocks. I have never seen such a collection of skippable rocks. They were all perfect.


We went swimming in the pool and hit the sack. The next morning we spent touring the Kirtland temple and the churches visitor center near there, as well as the Whitney Store. It was such a drastic difference between the temple under the direction of the Community of Christ and the Whitney Store under the direction of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The spirit in the Store is powerful. The Temple is lacking something. It was great to see but there was no comparison with the store. They let us sit awhile in the school of the prophets room. It was awesome to sit and consider all the things that happened in that room. Here are some pictures of the temple and then the store and the other things around it.



The window above the sign in this picture is where the school of the Prophets was.



This was the sawmill. There was no blacksmith shop but I asked if they had any evidence if one existed. They said no. Sorry Dad.



After checking out Kirtland, we went to Niagra Falls. We got to our hotel, which was in Canada, in the early evening. It was cool to be spending the night out of the country. That was the first time I have ever done that. We walked down to the falls and took a bunch of pictures. The town around the Falls is like a huge carnival. In walking the two or three blocks to the falls we passed 2 wax museums, at least 3 haunted houses and all sorts of ridiculous things. It was crazy. Here are a few pictures of the falls. This first is of the American Falls. Notice the small section separated from the main falls. That separated section is known as bridal veil falls.

This is the Canadian falls. The border is just on the left side of this falls. It's shaped like a horseshoe. It's very impressive.

Here's a few more pictures of the falls.






After taking loads of pictures, we waited around for the dark because they light the falls with different colored lights. It's actually pretty silly. There were fireworks as well because it was Victoria day in Canada. The next morning we went on the Maid of the Mist boat. It's a boat that takes you into the mist of the falls. We got soaked but it was pretty great. Afterwards we came home. It was a great trip.

My mother's son

I would never have thought this to be the case but I am my mother's son. When going to the hospital to find out about volunteering in the ER, Emily found out that they were in dire need of receiving blankets. She thought that she could make a bunch. I figured that I could help her. It has turned into my project. I work on them while Emily works. She's happy that I'm there and I'm doing something I enjoy. Here's the ones I've done so far. Yes I'm the one that hand quilted them. Emily did the edging. It's kind of weird to think that, but like I said I am my mother's son. (For those of you who don't know, my mother is a crazy quilter.)

Emily designed this pink one.




I came up with the design for the quilting on this one.




Here's me with my handy-work.



We have the materials for I'd guess 5 more.

Playing in the Dirt

I spent this morning planting flowers in Cindra's yard. I really enjoy doing it but it was awkward moving around. On Monday I spent all day working on cleaning cars and so my muscles were sore. I enjoy working outside with my hands so this week has been great. I also get to spread mulch. The pile was delivered today so my chore tomorrow will be that. Emily likes to see my hands dirty so she took some pictures. Here they are.