Exhausted Animal Paradise

We are managing to enjoy the warm weather in spite of Dear Daughter's bug-o-phobia. She seems to be improving a bit with this fearful obsession, just in time for the God-forsaken Japanese Beetles to make their debut and fill the skies with their horror for several weeks. The good news is that it really is only about six weeks that they linger about and then they are gone for another year. The bad news is that they seem to get worse every year, and this one will likely follow suit with the over-all mild winter we had. Even if Dear Daughter gets over her bug-o-phobia by that time, I'm sure it will return with the Volkswagon sized critters showing up, and my own anything-resembling-a-cockroach-phobia will kick in as well. Sigh.

We made it to Dear Hubby's company picnic on Saturday, which was held at Exotic Animal Paradise. I was telling Dear Daughter of these plans on Friday afternoon, and she was very excited about it. She loves to visit anything that has to do with seeing animals. Before going to the picnic Saturday afternoon Dear Daughter came with me for our weekly trip to the local Stuff Mart. On the way home she began talking about going to the "Exhausted Animal Paradise." I laughed so hard I nearly drove off the road. Turns out Dear Daughter was right about the exhausted part. I hadn't been to Exotic Animal Paradise for at least 20 years, and it's definitely gotten a bit "tired" and hasn't been kept up too well. However, Dear Daughter loved the "open air" bus ride around the park where we saw lots of less-than-exotic, tired old animals. There were a couple dozen deer and deer-related type creatures, a dozen or so tired old donkeys, a couple camels, a couple zebras, and a half dozen Indian "Sacred Cows." Apparently the "exhausted animals" are about to retire this September when the park closes down. We figured that explained the current run-down condition of the park. They will be auctioning off their animal park equipment, exhausted animals, and rickety old "open air" touring busses. If you are in the market for a tired old donkey, you won't want to miss this event.

We didn't manage to get any pictures at this family outing. Something about juggling an almost-three-year-old and a five-month-old keeps all our appendages too full of assorted "gear" to be able to hold and click a camera. So in lieu of pictures of a hyped-up toddler posing with exhausted animals, here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure from Memorial weekend.

Memorial weekend has become the traditional time for christening the toddler swimming pool in the backyard, and so we kept with the tradition, and "Little Bubby" had his "innaugural first dip."