Jacksonville Zoo

Jacksonville Zoo

April 13, 2013

A day at the zoo while Lisa studied:

Egypt definitely shares Kellisa's interest and love for snakes.

Kellisa practicing her wheelies.  

We ended the visit with two rides around the zoo on the train.

The Birmingham Zoo

The Birmingham Zoo

December 2012

Egypt enjoying the "mingos"

Egypt's eyes had tears from the cold wind while riding the train. At one point, Egypt looked at me and explained the tears as: "daddy, my face isn't working right".

Egypt taking a picture of a baby orangutan:

Egypt made three new friends while riding the train. They were visiting the zoo on a high school field trip. I let Egypt walk with them to see the monkeys and elephants. While in the monkey house, the girl's teacher caught up with them and they introduced Egypt as their new friend from the train. The teacher got very concerned thinking the girls had let Egypt wander away from her parents. I was standing about 10 feet away at the time. The girls quickly pointed to me and explained that I was Egypt's father. The teacher sighed with great relief.

Egypt posing by a bug for Kellisa (Egypt thought Kellisa would want to put this picture in her room):

Kellisa's 12th Birthday (5.23.11)

Almost a teenager:

It's hard to shop for a kid who only has a few loves: Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, snakes, bugs, bats, spiders and has not only a whole room, but pretty much an entire house filled with those items. Kellisa did receive a few Hannah items and some drawing paper with pens.





Kellisa's big gift from mom and dad was a trip to the Tampa area. The plan was simple: play a Saturday morning baseball game and then take a quick flight down to Tampa for a birthday dinner. Followed by a Sunday morning visit to the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish, FL to take a historic train ride through "old Florida", followed by lunch and a return flight to Jax.

Kellisa has loved airplanes and trains for years now and she has passed that passion for travel and adventure to her sister. It seemed like the perfect gift.

Enjoying the train ride:

What's a trip without an "incident"? As the train cars were not made to ADA specifications, it was a challenge to get Kellisa and her chair on and off the train. When the ride was over, Lisa exited the train with Egypt to be out of the way for Kellisa to get off the train. Kellisa was on the platform (red circle- picture below) just outside the train shaking the conductor's hand when the train surged forward. In an instant, the wood deck was lifted (blue circle- picture below) from the ground amidst cracking sounds. The deck was tilting and unsure of what was even happening, I ran while pushing Kellisa and actually jumped an open section in the decking (green circle- picture below). After the jump, we joined Lisa and Egypt on a safe portion of the decking.