Gone Fishin'

Well, today was a big day for Clara. She has been asking for quite some time to go fishing, so this morning we went to the little pond that is just a couple miles from our house. Being very mechanically minded, she really enjoyed learning how everything worked. Nothing was caught today (for which I was thankful), but that was a very minor point for her. She learned quickly and was casting by herself--though we did make sure to give her plenty of clearance. Ellie and I walked around the pond and saw a couple of Canada geese with their goslings, looked for the frogs we could hear (never saw them) and found lots of sticks to throw in the water. Shortly after we got home, she talked about taking our fishing poles to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Learning to cast
Learning to reel it in
Ellie learning to reel it in
Proud moment after a successful cast
Getting the hang of it

Play Park

I've been working pretty regularly at the library. There's a play park near there where Rog tries to bring the girls while I'm working so we can eat together and I can see them (especially if I'm working past their bedtime). Now, whenever I have a work day the girls count on it being "park day". Here's a few pics from Monday. We had a short picnic followed by lots of play time and Ellie grabbing hands, saying "show me" to take one of us to each new piece of equipment. As you can see, Clara is quite a climber. What a good big sister!
Clara was very proud of herself being able to go across the bars--she's really been working at it.
Ellie peaking through the tunnel

A Day at the Aquarium

On Tuesday we went to the Newport Aquarium with Carters, Aunt Linda, Grandma and Mark and Kristen Klimek. Aunt Linda had checked out several books for the girls about fish and aquariums, so they were ready to go. Clara's favorite thing was seeing the teeth of a shark and she and Ellie both enjoyed pretending to be vets with a play shark in the children's area. In the pic below of Ellie, I loved it that I could see her mouth open expression in the reflection on the glass as she looked at the colorful fish.

Newport on the Levee overlooking the Ohio River

Rolling Ridge Ranch

On Friday, we met Carters in Amish country and visited Rolling Ridge Ranch. We had a great time feeding and petting domestic and exotic animals. We rode on a horse drawn wagon through wooded areas and open pasture. We saw ostriches, water buffalo, zebras, elk, scimitar horned oryx, donkeys, long horned cattle, monkeys, and more. Clara caught on quickly and soon made sure she always had a feed bucket ready when the animals approached. Ellie had fun peaking under her seat at the animals, petting the ones that came close enough, and holding her bucket over the side of the wagon while saying "horsey, c'mere". I never thought I'd be this close to some of these animals. I actually felt the velvet on the antlers of an elk, petted bison, llamas, had an ostrich eating out of the bucket I was holding. Here are some pics of the visit.

Clara was very serious about holding this duckling.

Ellie with duckling

"Horsey, C'mere"

Rog and Spencer made friends.

We discovered ostriches were very messy eaters.