Metro Richmond Zoo

Andrew and I went to the Metro Richmond Zoo on Saturday. It was pretty dreary in the morning, and we were afraid it was going to rain on us. Thankfully it cleared up. It's a pretty cool zoo, they have a lot of animals. I definitely like the North Carolina Zoo better though, and it's less expensive. 

There were cute little prairie dogs. 

A lot of emus who were chilling with the kangaroos: 

Vultures: 

Something I've never heard of before: the Diana Monkey!

They had a lot of friendly hoofed animals who loved to be fed. 

One of these little ones tried to eat my dress!

There was a giraffe feeding area! 

The most ridiculous part of the zoo had to be this: cheetahs and zebras, separated only by a chain-link fence. The cheetahs are about to die of frustration, and I'm not sure if the zebras like teasing them or if they're stressed out. 

Most disappointing part of the zoo? I was promised llamas. 

There were no llamas. 

The closest thing to a llama was this unfriendly alpaca who just wanted to turn over the poor zookeeper's wheelbarrow. 

Oh well. 

Dinosaur Park

Andrew and I went to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham on Saturday. It is SUCH an awesome museum - even for two twenty-one years looking to embrace their inner child. I would go there all the time, especially in lovely weather (since half of the museum is outside). 

They even have dinosaurs!

Annie B. Mission and Star Mountain

In late December, 2010, I was blessed enough to have the opportunity to go to Israel with young adult convo of the Moravian Church here in North America. For the non-Moravians out there, there's high school convo, with which I was able to go to Minnesota in 2009, and then young adult convo which alternates every four years between Germany (the birthplace of the Moravians) and Israel (the birthplace of Christianity).

Israel was beautiful, and I have so many awesome memories of our trip there.

My sister and me:

Masada:

On this trip we traveled to Star Mountain, a school for the intellectually disabled from childhood to adulthood. It's sponsored by and affiliated with the Moravian Church. 

It's a beautiful place, and it's obvious that the people there love their work. 

 On a different track, my aunt passed away in September, 2010. 

My darling uncle was looking for a way to honor her memory and heard about our stories when we returned, especially our admiration of Star Mountain. 

From those events, the Annie B. Mission was born. 

My sister, myself, Elizabeth (my cousin's fiancee) and my cousin Matt (Steve's son) - it's obviously a family venture:

This month, we've made the cover of the Moravian magazine! Click here to go read about us; it's several articles that are all really awesome!

Exploring Virginia

I survived the week! Well, of course I did, but it felt unending at the time. I spent the weekend up in Virginia visiting Andrew, which was awesome. 

On Saturday we wandered around Farmville and found this awesome old thrift/antique/junk store. 

I got a lot of fabric for not a lot of money, which I love!

We also went to Richmond, to the Virginia Holocaust Museum. 

I went to the one in Washington D.C. about eight years ago, so I don't remember it that well, but this one is definitely different. It's really nice, but instead of being an overall look at the Holocaust, a lot of it follows the story of one family. 

They also used a lot of dummies, which definitely gave a feel for reality, but was also kind of creepy. But there were some parts where it was really useful to understand how crowded people were. 

Here's a part of the Nuremburg Trials mock-up:

We wandered around Richmond too, using Andrew's GPS to guide us to random locations.

He teases me for using full manual mode in my camera, but I've gotta practice!

Lawn ornaments

If I ever have a lawn that needs ornamenting, I know where to go. 

This place had the craziest, biggest statues I've ever seen!

It's in the furniture warehouse area of Farmville, if you're interested. :)

Finally

My camera is here!!

I'm so excited. 

Here are some random, happy memory photos: