on sunday, before making the long drive back to minneapolis, we made one more three-year old birthday pitstop at the great plains zoo.

when you first enter you get to see all of the animals standing completely still. how nice of them. better for photographing.

i liked this wall. who wants to help me paint a wall in my crafting room with this sort of scene?

hannie is a silly monkey.

they’re just playing.

monkey pile!

such a fashionable little fish.

karyn was eaten by a hippo before we even got to see any moving animals. tragic!

ok, enough of this. real animals, please!

the first animal we saw outside was a peacock and this is about all that i remembered from the zoo when i first visited a million years ago.

the alpaca was the most apprehensive.

after hannie rode the carousel (the first time), i had to go look at most of the african animals alone. because she wanted to keep riding the carousel.

lazy cheetahs! very boring.

this is the baby rhino that, at one point, hannie was excited about. before the carousel happened.

hannie’s last ride on the carousel was with me. honestly? i got kinda dizzy.

i like lemurs because they look like cats with even crazier eyes.

we ended our visit with the asian kitties. and there was one i’ve never seen before: pallas’ cat! adorable.

he was a little bigger than a house cat and he was all chatter-y and chirp-y. wanted to bring him home!

and i thought about him the whole way home to minneapolis. (not really) (maybe)

iPhone for Christmas? I wanna see how the WordPress app performs… Between the regular camera app, Hipstamatic, and the Vintage Camera app, I already have 150 photos to share. (Yikes!)

Hannie tried on Pop-pop’s glasses.

Then Hannie and I took a photo together (while I tried on Aunt Debbie’s glasses). SMILE!!

Jason and I stopped in Blue Earth, Minnesota, to meet the Jolly Green Giant.

LOL, egg nog.

This afternoon I had a few dozen Thrushes (I think) hanging around outside my office window. Kinda creepy.

So many more photos to share! Why do I take so many?

In theory, having a WordPress app will help me to update more often but I think I’d rather have my photos linked from Flickr instead of uploaded to my blog’s media center. I’m torn. Any iPhone bloggers out there with helpful tips?

so, to review: lots of walking, lots of photos, aching feet, and then it was bedtime and i had to give up the bloggin’.

where i left off: it was about 5 p.m. and we had a half hour to choose a smithsonian museum to run through. i chose the natural history museum which was silly because (a) i had already been there (b) it was further away, thus more walking (c) i like animals too much.

things that come from the ocean are usually really gross.

but light art is cool.

huuuuuuugs!

during choir rehearsal the other night, we all chose a power animal. i went with the american bison.

i think jason took this photo, but it reminds me of a halloween costume i once wore:

that was the best halloween costume. ever. (incidentally, what are you planning to be for halloween this year?)

kitty photos! because i’m a crazy cat lady.

after the museum closed, we wandered around to the east side of the building to see the butterfly garden.

we saw two butterflies and a few bees. maybe it was a bit late in the season… so we started the walk back to the hotel, with a detour to see the white house.

the white house.

we did the whole we’ll-take-your-photo-if-you-take-ours.

i paused to take a photo of the house next to the white house – is this the vice president’s quarters, i think? anyway, i was shooed out of the way by one of the gate guards. it seemed like something was happening, so we hung around like tourists are wont to do. suddenly, three suvs came tearing out of the gate and i’m pretty sure i saw michelle obama in the back of the first car. at least, i saw her silhouette. very exciting. (am i too easily excited?)

the north side of the white house. oooh aaah.

visiting longfellow was our last pit stop (and i saw a live city rat here!) before getting back to the hotel. i think i fell asleep for about an hour, then woke up hungry. for dinner that night, we decided to visit hank’s oyster bar.

we had some pretty delicious food. and some other food, that maybe is more of an acquired taste.

our flight on wednesday didn’t leave until the early afternoon, so we decided to squeeze in one more visit to the smithsonian museum of american history. worth it!

(i love barbie, she’s amazing.)

julia child’s kitchen! i didn’t realize this is the museum where it is housed.

and honestly? it was so cluttered. this kitchen would drive me insane.

this diorama of a ’70s house was all about plastics and toxins, if i remember right.

bomb shelter!

i really think dioramas with people in them are creepy.

two bison in one post. too much?

the last exhibit we saw was all about dresses of the first ladies. i wish i had captured more of the sparkle.

jason hung out with jfk. i smiled at my new bff, michelle.

jason one-upped me by waving at hillary.

and then it was time to go home. i’m not entirely sure why, but something about our flight being crazy busy and full meant we got some vouchers for free drinks during the flights. what luxury!

we are suckers for free. but it was still a nice little treat. (thanks, delta!)

i wish we could travel more often.

there is so much going on this summer, and i have so so so many things i keep meaning to write about and share photos from, but i have this sort of block in my head about blogging. i’ve been working for two this summer at work (my boss has been on maternity leave, but the end is in sight) so it’s tough to come home and want to do more web work, ya know? it’s not like i’m turning off the computer altogether when i get home – i’m still twittering and facebooking, but it’s not mandatory work like this whole business of updating a blog is.

but, anyway, as i said — the end is in sight and maybe one day soon i’ll get better at updating. i do so love to share my photos here – and it’s a good record of the awesome things i do and the awesome people i know and the awesome experiences i’ve had. life is good, it’s just really busy at the moment.

and even though i have a million other things that have happened in the last few months that i want to share (eventually), i’m going to start with the most recent, most exciting news at the moment:

jason bought a house.

i get to be in this photo because he’s sweet and, at the end of the month, i’ll be moving in with him. it’s a really nice, cute house with lots of rooms for guests and rock band and kitties and bird feeders (in the yard). we are very much looking forward to what will go down when my two kitties move in and meet his kitty.

the previous (and only) owner of the house had lived here since the mid-1950s, so that gives us a good feeling about the joint. he was about 90 years old and moving into an assisted living home. he couldn’t take all of his furniture, so we opted to keep a couple of pieces that he would’ve otherwise gotten rid of – the highlights include a couple loveseats, an extra bed for guests, and (i’m especially excited about this) a sewing machine (because as much as i love web, i will always love crafting by hand – expect updates on attempts to quilt sometime this winter) (first i need to finish a couple knitting projects…).

not including the frozen pizza we made on friday, i made our first dinner in the house last night. i like the kitchen a lot – it needs some aesthetic updating, but it’s large and it’s going a good work triangle going on. the funkiest thing in the house is amana radarange instead of microwave, though. i’m sort of weary about using it, but i suppose we’ll add that to the list i’m going to title as such: “someday-future-house-projects-that-we-need-to-prioritize-but-right-now-lets-focus-on-just-moving-in-and-getting-settled-and-enjoying-the-new-digs”.

the night that jason closed, we went to see cloud cult play at orchestra hall. i think that could be another post of photos entirely. it was a beautiful show and a fabulous ending to a very notable day, so the ticket is the first thing that has been hung on the fridge.

as much as i daydream about having clothing lines outside, the neighbor’s grapevine is covered in these little metallic bugs that i’m sure would also cover my drying laundry. so instead the clothing line poles will hold my bird feeders. i haven’t seen any little birdies on them, yet, but i’ve seen them across the backyard on another neighbor’s feeders. i have seen two little rabbits and a squirrel, though. jason saw a deer a couple nights ago, too. nature! i love it and i want it to be in my backyard.

chives that have flowered = no longer edible, right? does that whole don’t-eat-after-it-flowers thing apply to all herbs?

tomatoes that i’ll be excited to pick and cook or can in the next month. there will actually be a lot of tomatoes on four little plants.

i don’t know much about rhubarb, but i know it makes good pies. is it too late in the season for this stuff? do i need to cut it back for next spring? is this really rhubarb or is it just that weed that looks like rhubarb?

there is so much about this house to be excited about! mostly i can’t wait ’til after moving is all done to get into the front flower gardens and clean it all up in preparation for next spring! because digging in the dirt doesn’t cost money (until you realize that you don’t have all of the proper tools…).

i could tell you that this is my favorite flower, but i’m not sure it’s the truth. i proclaim every flower i see to be my favorite. so i’ll just tell you this is one of my favorites, for sure. and it’s growing on my front steps!

these are survivors i picked out of the mess that was my flower garden attempt last summer. i decided i didn’t have enough time or energy to devote to another flower garden project, so i was sort of cleaning up the area and discovered these guys, growing strong during a chilly minnesotan spring.

bleeding heart, periwinkle, lamb’s ear, and day lillies.

wikipedia just told me that periwinkle is also a kind of sea snail. the more you know!

this is me tonight: i drank a nordeast grain belt and watched the season finale of glee online. i laid on the floor. the kitties wrestled around me. didn’t turn the television on at all. it’s just quiet, except for the tick of the clock and the gurgle of the kitties’ water fountain.

in one month, i’m going to san francisco again! i’m bringing my special dude and we’re going to hang out in golden gate park, i want to see that japanese tea garden. oh! and this time i will make sure to see the full house house from alamo square. i’m also be attending voices that matter: web design. i’m excited! this lady needs an airplane ride.