Emily's love of animals

Our little Emily is an animal lover. She gets it from her daddy, but I think she comes by it very naturally, and has shown no fear since she was very little. It definitely skipped her big sister Anna, as usually Anna is miles away from the animal in question. Here are two recent pictures of our little Emily enjoying animals.

This first picture is Emily holding a 6 week old black bear cub at Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Lodge in Utica, IL. We were coming back from Milwaukee, and during our stay, they had 3 baby bears there for people to see. Emily loved the experience and was very fascinated with the little sounds they made and how they tried to walk on their little legs. While this picture is a litle hard to see, Emily is petting a baby alligator during our visit to Homosassa State Park in Florida. Emily was so excited to see the alligator that was her size. A nice stroke on the back of an alligator is soothing to the alligator ... when they are young. I don't think I would recommend that for very long.

Spring trip to Lexington

And finally, we ended up in Lexington, Kentucky to spend several days with Kristin's parents (Grandad and Grandma) as well as other family members (David, Jessica, Will, Luke, Tom - and Bob and Lindsey). The girls had a great time playing with Will, Luke and Tom - which included lots of wrestling, running and jumping. We also went to a horse retirement home for an outing, which except for being a little cold and slightly boring for a bunch of young children ... was great. Happy 5th Birthday Will (or is that Luke Skywalker)

A trip to the horse farm "Old Friends"

Our little clown Jenna ... smelling the flowers

Spring trip stop in Berea Kentucky

On the way from Knoxville to Lexington, we stopped in Berea, Kentucky for a quick break. So much fun with the girls.

Spring trip to Knoxville

The second leg of our trip took us to Knoxville to visit Grandmother and Granddaddy. As always, we had a wonderful time enjoying their company and their house (the girls loved the mounted deer head and the cuckoo clock). While in Knoxville, on a lovely 65 degree day, we enjoyed the zoo. A great time (with many smiles) had by all.

At the zoo

Spring trip to Nashville

We started our spring break trip (not really spring break, but we are heading out for a week anyway) by going to Nashville to visit Uncle Joe and Aunt Suzi and Granny (and other extended Hamilton family). Here are some of our favorite pictures from Nashville portion of the visit.

Uncle Joe and the girls, reading books.

Aunt Suzi reading to Jenna

Granny and the girls Granny saved a cake for the girls to frost and decorate (and it was good).

Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Lodge

On the way home from Milwaukee, we stopped at Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Lodge for a night of fun at the waterpark. Everyone had lots of fun!!!!!

Milwaukee visit to Jeff & Annie's

A weekend visit to Milwaukee meant 5 little kids having a great time (and 4 adults). We had a lovely time with two little growing boys. They all got a long really well playing with each other.

We spent Saturday morning at the library having a great time. Here is Emily, Eli and Anna looking around the library.

Anna enjoying the fun at the library sing-a-long.

Jude and Jenna ... loving their hats.

and yes, we even wore some of them out.