Fall Fest and Nashville Zoo

On Saturday, our church had "Fall Fest" as a community outreach event. We had all kinds of fun activities on the church lawn: a bouncy house, a HUMONGOUS inflatable slide (which Josie and I went down about 5 times. It took me an hour to talk her into it, then she loved it!), a car show, awesome food, face painting, a petting zoo (complete with a camel!), and pony rides. It was a lot of fun and it seemed to me that we had a TON of visitors from the neighborhood. Please be praying for our church as we follow-up with those visitors and continue to share the love of Jesus with them.

Josie's face while looking at the petting zoo from a "safe" distance.

Josie and her new friend Rachel with the goats.

Not a fan of the pony ride.

Josie's favorite event of the day (other than the slide): popcorn.

Today we met my sister-in-law, Mary Anne, and her kids (still on Fall Break) for our first trip to the Nashville Zoo. This zoo didn't have as many animals as the Houston Zoo, but it was very nicely maintained and laid out. I must say that the playground area is AWESOME, and would be worth the membership fee just to have access to that all the time. Seriously....there's a huge castle/fort with a 3-story tunnel slide. So cool!!! We had great weather and it was such a nice day to walk through the zoo. Here are some pictures:

Josie in the garden at the "farm".

We got to go inside this bird "sanctuary" and feed them nectar from little cups. I don't remember what kind of birds they were, but they were very colorful and pretty. They would land on your arm and eat from the little cups. The kids all loved it!

This picture totally makes me laugh. My niece, Faith, had just tried to pet the bird that was on her hand and it pecked at her. I just happened to get her reaction. :-)

Josie and John Derrick watching the elephant. We wanted him to stick his trunk in the water and spray, but he never did.

Josie's transformation from being deathly afraid of the goats on Saturday, to being in an open pen with them and brushing one on Monday. Go figure.