Downtown Richmond

Downtown Richmond is kind of dreamy, right?

A Day at the Richmond Zoo

We visited the Metro Richmond Zoo a couple months ago, and it is seriously the best zoo I've ever been to. When we pulled up, we were worried - it looked super tiny. (We joked that we were at the zoo in "We Bought a Zoo" because that's what it felt like.) The parking lot was tiny, the entrance was tiny, and really, it is a small zoo - but that's what made it so neat! There were a lot of animals in a relatively small space, and all of the animals were out and about and being very entertaining. (It's not that the cages were small - more that there just wasn't a lot of walking distance between each exhibit.)

The coolest parts were the interactive exhibits where you got to feed or hold the animals. The first one we stopped at was the bird exhibit. It was a big walk-in fenced dome with tons of pretty little birds. We bought popsicle sticks with bird seed on the ends and held them up inside the dome for the birds to land on and eat. It was pretty cool, and there were A LOT of birds in there. Sometimes they would land on our heads or shoulders - and that was neat, but also sort of freaky - haha!

The other interactive exhibit was the giraffes. There was a bridge built up over the giraffe area where you could be eye to eye with the giraffes. We bought cups full of giraffe food and had fun putting the food onto their long, slimy tongues.

I would highly recommend this zoo if you're ever in the area - it was great!

Lake Day

I just realized I never posted these photos from our first trip to Hadad's Lake. We discovered this place while looking for places to swim in the area, and it's really just the coolest little swimming lake I've ever been to. The water is shallow and warm, perfect for Wren to splash around in. The concession stand is stocked with corn dogs and ice cream sandwiches (or you can bring your own food and borrow a grill), and even though it gets busy, there's always an open spot with a couple lawn chairs and an umbrella to relax under.

If it was up to me, I'd park myself in the sand at this place every single weekend until October. :) Here's a little video of us in action at the lake in case you missed it.

Another Day at the Lake

We went to Hadad's Lake again last weekend. It's quickly becoming one of our favorite places in the area. This time we brought Jon's mom and Jon's daughter Rowan with us, and we made this little video of our day.

Pocahontas State Park

I have this weird obsession with visiting every single swimming pool/lake/hole in the area. Maybe I'm just happy it's summer. Maybe it's this ridiculous heat. Either way, it's fun! :) Last weekend we checked out The Aquatic Center at Pocahontas State Park (on my summer list). The day was hot, the water was cold, and we got in the car minutes before a torrential downpour soaked everything. Then we headed home for naps, pizza and True Blood (we're catching up on last season before we watch the new one). All in all, a nice little Saturday.

Happy Summer

Happy first day of summer!! In honor of the summer solstice, here's a little list of things I'd like to do this summer. Some are from my birthday list, and some are new. What are you looking forward to this summer?

Summer To-Dos:
Bake a cake
Eat ice cream cones
Drink lemonade
Read a good book
Paint my toes bright pink
Get a tan
Make homemade pizza
Swim here and here and here