A Year's Hiatus

For all of you who don't know, Ian, Sophie and I will be spending the next year in Europe. We have started a new blog to keep everyone up to speed on what we're doing over here, and so we're moving over to that blog for the next year. We'll start up again on Sophie's blog when we return to the US, so keep it bookmarked.

The new blog is http://wilsons-in-europe.blogspot.com.

See you there!

A Visit from Grandma Linda

One last post before we officially switch over to our Europe blog. Sophie's Great Grandma Linda came to visit us right before we left for Strasbourg, which Sophie thoroughly enjoyed (as did Ian and I). It was a very relaxed visit dedicated mostly to visiting, but we caught a few of those relaxing moments with the camera.

Grandma Linda spent some time on the floor with Sophie, who had rediscovered a ball toy just before we left:


Grandma also brought a felt Sesame Street book with pieces that you can place on it for Sophie. It was such a hit that we brought it with us to Europe!

The weekend Grandma visited was the weekend that Danville celebrated the Great American Brass Band Festival. It was pretty warm outside, but we ventured over for a little while to listen.


The heat wore Sophie out!

Louisville Zoo...the Finale

Toward the end of our day at the Louisville Zoo, Sophie was looking a little wilted and tired, but luckily at the bottom of the hill (and smack dab at the half-way point), there was a little water park. It was so hot by this time, we just let Sophie run around and get her self wet. As you can tell by the pictures, it sure perked her up!



The last thing we did before leaving was go on the little train that goes around the park. Sophie had been looking forward to this all day long, and it didn't disappoint.



Here she is pretending to be a giraffe again:

The trip had a couple of small tunnels, and the conductor told the kids to feel free to yell as we went through them. Sophie was a little scared and hesitant at first, but then really got into it. It so impressed her that to this day she yells quietly every time we go under a tunnel or even an overpass!


Here we all are on the train:

Louisville Zoo Part 2

So, we've finally settled down for a few days again, so I can finish posting the Louisville Zoo pictures. Here are some pictures of Sophie with some of her other favorite animals.

At the hippo exhibit:


At the gorilla exhibit. She obviously has some growing to do before she becomes a full-grown gorilla!

This is a really bad picture, but one of the few that I got with both Sophie and the gorilla on the other side of the glass:

Looking at zebras with daddy:

Petting the goats at the petting zoo. She was okay with them at first, but then got scared and wouldn't pet any more.





There was a man who had an elephant tusk that children could touch. She enjoyed testing out the feel:


And riding the elephant:

I have a few more pictures that I'll try to post in the next day or two. After that, we'll move semi-permanently over to the other blog until next summer.

Another Blog

In case you haven't been notified, we're currently blogging more generally about our year in Europe at wilsons-in-europe.blogspot.com.

There will be some additional photos from June posted here soon, but we'll likely take a complete hiatus from posting here after that (until July 2009, when we return to the US).

A Trip to the Zoo

Right after Sophie's birthday, we (Ian, Grandpa Fine, Grandma Fine, and myself) took Sophie to the Louisville Zoo. It was a hot day, but Sophie seemed to really enjoy it. Her favorite animal this trip was the giraffe. And I think her favorite part of the trip was the little train that went around the park. I'll post some pictures of the zoo over the next few days.


This big giraffe was licking the poles, so...

...Sophie decided to imitate him:




As always, Sophie liked the reptile house. If you look really hard, there is an albino alligator behind the reflection of her arm in the first picture.



Here she is trying to give Grandma a kiss:

Grandpa's favorite seemed to be the rhinos. Surprisingly, they were active that day, so we got to see them move around.