Sophie's Bad, Really Awful, Terrible Hair Day

Yup, that's Sophie with the biggest snarl in the history of the universe on her head, the result of standing bent over a gushing sprinkler for twenty minutes at the zoo water park. Amazingly, none of it had to get cut off.



Aunty Tara was with us that day. Doesn't everyone look cool in their shades next to the Mutant Leatherback Turtle?


The zoo has a fairly new exhibit where you can pet and feed the stingrays. The zookeepers keep the rays' barbs clipped (like fingernails!) so they're harmless. What you have to watch out for is their vacuum-suction mouths. Sophie once lost some skin off her finger when she didn't let go of her frozen shrimp piece fast enough, and an overzealous ray sucked her finger against his bony plate.



At the lorakeet exhibit, we bought small cups of nectar and held them out to the birds, which fly down and perch on your arm and sip with their tube-like gray tongues. There are a few aggressive ones that will take the cup right out of your hand. It's also common for them to hop on your shoulder or head and bite your hair.


Ryan's been extremely busy at church lately. He helping to organize a series of classes for newcomers, as well as launching fellowship groups for the summer. Given that helping people connect and running fellowship groups are two of Ryan's favorite things, you can imagine how excited he is these days. He's also scheduled to preach on July 18th, a sermon on John 2. So please keep him in your prayers!

Bonus picture (or not, depending on your point of view):
We're putting this last picture at the end because it might make some folks a little queasy. So if you're one of those folks - don't look! If you're not one of those folks, then it's a fascinating picture.

A flock of wood cranes nest at the zoo, in some trees in the Africa habitat. They're not in captivity, and weren't lured to the site; they just liked what they saw, and settled in. We're not sure what this vulture has in his chops, but we think it might be a baby crane that fell out of its nest. The vulture didn't eat his find, just kept banging it against the ground as though to make sure it was dead.


Just another one of nature's uplifting experiences.