The Phoenix Zoo

While on Christmas break in Arizona, we took a trip to the Phoenix Zoo, which happens to be a great place for animals from Africa! Here we are with giraffes and water buffalo-like animals.









Bruce grew up 5 miles from the LA zoo and his dad used to take the kids to the zoo every year. The highlight of every trip was when animals would relieve themselves. Fortunately, this trip was no disappointment and we saw the tiger below relieve herself.






We got to walk into a monkey area and watch them run around. We were within a foot of a monkey several times as they climbed trees, jumped across ropes, and ran across benches. The monkeys weigh only 1.5 lbs and one of them is over Christie's shoulder.

..and just for good measure, here's a picture of giraffes.

Santa's Little Helper....aka...BAD SANTA!!! BAD DOG!!!

That's right, we've added a 7 month old puppy to our little family. He is 1/2 miniature pinscher, 1/2 beagle and we adopted him from our local humane society. The first week or two we had him he didn't bark, chew, or jump on things!! Too bad that all changed once he got settled in. Now he chews everything in sight (especially shoes!) and he barks to try and make us play with him. His redeeming qualities seem to be that he is already potty trained and he likes to take naps on his mama's lap :) And mom has to admit that she likes having company during the day when she is otherwise home alone.

Our Trip to the Toledo Zoo

We took a trip in November to the Toledo Zoo with the Ross (Michigan) MBA Kids Club. The zoo is about an hour away and we figured it would be fun to see some animals. As it turned out, we actually went for the first night of Zoo Lights- the Christmas lights had just been put up all around the zoo. We posed for a picture in front of some lights, as did our friends Tyler, Andrea, and Hayden Hooper.

It was below 20 degrees that night and most of the animals decided it was too cold. Even the polar bear wouldn't come outside! The snakes were about the only animals we were able to see.

Bruce and Christie start a blog....

October 11, 2008:
We are going to start a blog to keep you all informed about the things going on in our life:

We'll start with a recap of the summer. Bruce and Christie were married on August 2, 2008 in Bremerton, WA. After a 10 day honeymoon on St. Barthelemy we packed up the car and drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 3 days.

On September 2, 2008 Bruce officially started business school. Although school keep him occupied for upwards of 12 hrs a day, he is really enjoying all of his classes and clubs (this is a good sign!).

Christie will be starting her part-time telecommuting work with Lockheed Martin on Monday after a long stint as stay-at-home wife. She is very excited to have something to fill her days!