Monkey Brains

Well, I've all but forgotten that our future hangs in the balance. Avoidance, denial, acceptance, all or some clearly in play here, but it feels really good not to be worried about it.

My parents are waiting on their mission call any day now.  I'm anxious to know where they'll be going and so are they.  I realized that our situations are quite similar at the moment. With the decision out of our respective hands, we both wait to find out where we'll be.              

We've begun the descent into the holiday season and I can feel the wheels picking up speed as we roll over the edge of the hill.  The kids have all kinds of little things going on forcing me into mind limbering mental exercises.  It's like I'm eighty and playing Sudoku to keep the old hamster wheel turning, only I'm 31 and I lying in bed at night thinking,

 Can't forget Ava's poster for her genre project tomorrow (which we totally forgot, by the way).  I need to make her bonnet for Colonial Day on Thursday and I should put money on her lunch account so she can buy lunch with Grandma and Grandpa on Grandparents Day.  Don't forget tomorrow's dentist appointment! Luke needs popcorn for his feast party on Friday, gotta get that at Costco.  I need to return the book I borrowed before book club. Don't forget to get the turkey I forgot to buy yesterday for the six sandwiches Max needs to make and bring for his sharing feast at school.  And don't forget to cut them in quarters! 

And so on and on and on...

Sunday night, right before bedtime I remembered that Luke was "Moose of the Week". The hamster hadn't run properly on Saturday, I suppose. So we borrowed a posterboard from the neighbor and whipped this baby up.

 Here's a closer look. I loved his answers and his spelling of "Engineer".

Last weekend we hit the zoo for one last fling before Grandma's membership ran out. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed ourselves.

The kids always love to climb on the elephant statues.

Want me to take your picture, Max?

 We started at the opposite end from our usual and consequently spent a lot more time in The Savannah.  The giraffes were a highlight because they came so close.  Ava pet this one quite a few times.

We loved the lions.  They were in perfect view as they sat on a huge rock on a hill.  The very next day, one of the male lions, in an apparently calm fashion, leaned over, wrapped his mouth around the neck of one of the females and killed her, just like that.  I believe that was the first time that has ever happened in a zoo setting.  It breaks my heart to think of it.

 We rode the monorail.

And finished with the birds.

Wherever we go and even with all of the beautiful animals we saw, my camera always seemed to find its way back to this monkey.