"Funky green bench" and the wild animal park

When the description on craigslist said, "funky green bench", I knew I had found the answer to our table seating dilemma. It's green, but fits nicely in our apartment space, and will be handy when we have people over for dinner. The girls love it (unless Claire's plate wanders too close to Ashlyn's plate during dinner), and Lara likes having an alternative to her high chair.

We took a trip to the wild animal park and it was the first time Lara really appreciated what she was looking at. Ducks are her favorite right now. Being 15 feet away from a tiger just didn't do anything for her, but man those ducks. All the girls are becoming quite the little picture posers. We had a great time posing by the mom and baby gorilla statue. The gorillas were "off exhibit" when we were there, so we had to make due with statues. and gorilla/man comparison charts.

One of the highlights of our visit was the acrobats from Tanzania. We all enjoyed the show, except for Lara. about 10 minutes into the show Lara became very nervous about the guy doing the limbo under a pole that was on fire. Lara kept saying "All Done" and waving her hands. I finally turned her towards me and she buried her head against my shoulder for the remainder of the time. These guys were pretty amazing.

A lot of Pomp and A lot of Circumstance

Ashlyn and Claire were so excited to see their dad graduate last Friday. These pictures were taken after the 2 1/2 hour commencement and as you can see they were still thrilled.

He looks so distinguished.

Brock's parents and siblings came down to celebrate with us.My mom and grandmother also braved the ceremony. The rest of the week-end was a party with a family gathering at Filipis pizza following the commencement where my siblings with all the Plumb nieces and nephews joined us.
On Saturday we enjoyed the beach...

We had to build a barricade for rogue waves which Shannon and Aldous decorated...and Lara destroyed.

Lara went charging into the waves when we first got there and had fun running back and forth until one wave won and rolled her, she was a little shell shocked for a while, but eventually braved the cold water again. Everyone had fun digging holes, looking for sand crabs, and making s'mores.
On Memorial day we (meaning Brock and the girls) ran a 5K. It was great to watch from the sidelines. Ashlyn was really excited to race, and the night before she was super tired, but kind of woke up suddenly and said, "remember to wake up on time so that we don't miss the race." As if Claire would let me sleep in. Claire is a fairly reliable alarm clock. Ashlyn ran a good portion of the race and did short sprints up the hills and only rode on the front of the stroller periodically. Brock had a good work-out.



We then swam and BBQed the rest of the day. Definitely a week-end to remember.