Stones, Angelina, and Walter

After sleeping in (all of us) and having a big breakfast, we decided to celebrate Father's Day at one of our favorite local attractions, the zoo!  We braved the clouds, loaded up the wagon, and had an interesting visit!

At the end of March, we purchased personalized paving stones as a fundraiser for the purchase of a new cougar.  And today we were pleasantly surprised to find our bricks had been installed just the day before!  I loved seeing the girls' names carved into the stone and nestled next to each other.  Natalie pointed to and named each letter.  Charlotte stuck her finger in the heart shape and proceeded to crawl around.
 

The stones were placed in an area that overlooks another part of the zoo.  It's directly above an exhibit of rather large birds called Emus.  If I knew what I was talking about or thought it would even help, I would compare emus to an ostrich.  Large.  Flightless.  Small head.  Large body.

As you can see from the photos above, Natalie is clutching a small animal in a dress.  Well, that's a newly-acquired (during yard sales yesterday) Angelina Ballerina doll - sporting a delightful yellow tutu.

We aren't entirely sure of all the details, but that well-dressed mouse took a nice, long fall into the emu enclosure.  Natalie screamed out and started crying immediately - fairly certain she was fearing for Angelina's life.  The crowds down below all turned to look. A nearby zoo intern radioed for back-up and tried to distract the emus.  Despite her efforts, several of the large birds trotted over for a closer look. And I grabbed the camera ...

Walter, in particular, was quite smitten with Angelina.  Thankfully, the zoo keeper was able to retrieve the dancing mouse!  She was returned ... dirty but all in one piece with yellow tutu still in tact!