Alpacas in Ohio

It's so hard for me to believe it has been a month since I visited Ohio and took these photos. This adorable group of Alpacas live near my parents house. I always look forward to seeing them and snapping some photos. The faces they make really crack me up. Some of them are really cute and other have some really crazy eyes!



They are very unsure about my camera. They are just wondering where the carrots are??



This brown guy was my favorite. He actually put his ears down the way a dog would when I was talking to him. I'm sure he was just scared of my camera. I tried to pet him but he wouldn't let me. Again, they just want carrots.





When will you see me with the biggest smile on my face? When I am surrounded by animals.



I hope to visit the farm sanctuary in Colorado again this year!
Also on my list of places to visit is The Wildlife Sanctuary located in Keenesburg, Colorado.
View my post about when I visited the Peaceful Prairie Farm Sanctuary HERE.
If you haven't ever visited a sanctuary I urge you to! It's a great experience!!!

Trip to the Cincinnati Zoo

This was just going to be photos, but I decided to say more. I know there are a lot of mixed feelings about zoos. As much as I love being close to wildlife, it does break my heart as well. Before going vegan and becoming an "amateur animal activist" I never thought anything about all the animals caged up. Seeing a wild animal caged or stuck in a tiny exhibit is heart breaking. Going to the zoo has just always been a tradition for me.



It is nice to see the zoo promoting recycling. I say this because I don't think of Ohio as a very "green" state.




One of my favorite things about the Cincinnati Zoo is the insect house. They have a room filled with butterflies and orchids.
I really enjoy photographing them. It's such a peaceful place...




This guy was beautiful....


My favorite part of the zoo was feeding the goats. If I could have a pet goat I would.

Best photo of the day was one that a lady took of us together. How nice of her!

Cam, Dan, me and Cody (My besties!)
Our trip to the zoo was one of the only warm days while we were in Ohio. The weather didn't cooperate at all. This time last year there were tons of tulips and other flowers in full bloom. It was kind of a bummer to not get to see that this time. However I had a great time with my friends and Cody! This may be my last time visiting a zoo. Honestly when I went to the farm sanctuary in Colorado I had more fun. There is a very different feeling from a sanctuary verses caged animals. You feel the happiness and the love from the animals that are living free. :)

Photo An Hour // Shopping in Ohio

While visiting Ohio I decided to do a photo an hour post. I photographed a few different days, but decided that the photos below were my favorite. I took the photos on March 27th. It was a day that I spent with my close friend Cam. He knows I love to shop while in Ohio because there is such a great variety of places to go. He is patience with me and lets me take my time looking. He is the perfect shopping buddy. The weather wasn't quite warm enough to do any outdoor activities so this worked out for us. It gave us time to talk and catch up as well.



9AM - I found it hard to get up early while on vacation. Keeping up with the blog was really hard as well!
10AM - Heading out to go shopping all day. The sky looked so pretty.



11AM - There is a huge Goodwill in Ohio that I love going to. Sadly I bought nothing at all. Craziness!
12PM - It wasn't till I did this post that I realized we actually did not eat all day. Only had Starbucks. Oops.



1PM - I was in search of heart shaped sunglasses at the mall. Had no luck, but tried on silly glasses anyways! :)
2PM - Went to my favorite shoe store in town. I didn't buy the Converse because they were just one size too big. Bummer!



3PM - At TJ Maxx in the dressing room. Tried on 3 dresses and none of them fit. I was having a ruff shopping day.
4PM - Only thing I bought all day: Heart Shaped Sunglasses! YAY!



5PM - Went home for dinner! Finally ate something.
6PM - Headed back out to shop some more to the Cincinnati outlet store.



7PM - Only place I spent money all day, the Disney Outlet Store.
8PM - At home relaxing and watching the Big Bang Theory.



9PM - Tea Time :)
10PM - Chloe said it was time for bed! I was so tired from running around all day long.

While in Ohio I didn't do tons of shopping. When I did I had no luck at all. It seems to be getting harder and harder for me to find things that fit. Also the weather was still really chilly keeping us from doing a lot of the things that we had hoped to do.

Did you notice the reusable Starbucks cup? They are selling them at the stores right now for only $1! I was super excited. Some of you may wonder how I did with my coffee drinking while I was on vacation. I actually did really well. Since I was on vacation I didn't stress over it. I still only had one cup in the morning. The few days that I did go out shopping I would let myself get it. It was a treat. I am currently back to one cup of coffee in the morning but hope to switch to only tea.

Alpacas in Ohio

Back in April when I visited Ohio, these Alpacas I am about to share with you were not there yet. The people that live across the street from my parents decided to start raising them. I couldn't wait to see them in person and take some pictures.


As soon as you go up to the fence they start to walk over to you!
My mom has taught them this. They expect carrots!!
CLOSE UP!!

My mom and Cody fed them carrots.
This girl was too hot to walk up to the fence.
She just stood in her water instead.

The Alpacas seem to not like my parents dog Gretta.
Gretta will run up and down the fence line barking at them.
The Alpacas will actually chase her while she is doing it! Pretty funny and cute.
I love being this close to animals.
This was my first Alpaca encounter. :)

Quick Trip To Ohio

Well August has arrived and it has started out badly. Someone is my family has passed away and Cody and I decided to drive to Ohio to attend the funeral. I debated whether to put this on here or not, but I feel I am kinda going to go off-line for a few days and wanted to explain why. Cody and I decided to drive to Ohio, not fly. We had to take our dogs with us and we saved a lot of money by driving.

The drive was brutal. We decided to drive straight through from Wyoming to the Cincinnati Ohio area.
1200 miles in about 19 hours: We left at 3:45am and arrived around 11pm.
There was a lot of construction that slowed us down.
I don't know where the Dinosaur is, maybe Nebraska. I think it's for a museum. Even though we went to Ohio to attend a funeral, we do get to see our family.
Cody hadn't been to Ohio for a year.
We just showed up at his parents house to surprise them. They had no idea we were even in Ohio.
As far as my aunt passing away.....
I know she is smiling down on me and there is no way I couldn't make the 19 hour drive for her. :)
Thanks to everyone who left me comments in the last few days, I swear next week I will get caught back up again. Luckily I had some posts already done and scheduled for this week. I know you guys have been posting some great things on your blogs and I swear I will stop by and say hi next week!

I will have some cute pictures of some Alpaca's next week to share with you and I will soon be joining the world of Instagram because I got an iphone! YAY!

Cincinnati Union Terminal Center

While visiting Ohio last month my friend Dennis & I went to the Union Terminal Center in downtown Cincinnati. I tried to be artsy here and put these 4 pictures together to make a panoramic photo of the building, but it's crazy looking.... There is so much to do and see at the Cincinnati Museum. During our visit they had the Pompeii Exhibit, which was very interesting and sad at the same time. An entire city covered in ash from a volcano. I counted my blessings that day and my heart went out to the people who lost their lives. Needless to say, I couldn't photograph any of that. The other part of the museum we did walk through was Cincinnat In Motion. It's a train scaled display of downtown Cincinnati during the early 1900's. Look how cute the Union Terminal Center model is... My favorite thing in the display was the roller coaster from Coney Island... The train/city display was so fun to look at, but hard to photograph. It's very dark in the museum.
They have lights that change the city scene from night and day.
You can view my pictures of the REAL Downtown Cincinnati {HERE}.

The Columbus Zoo

Last weekend I went to the Columbus Zoo with a few friends. I had never been to the Columbus Zoo. It's pretty large and the top rated zoo in the country. I will say it's the only zoo that I have ever been to and not gotten lost. The layout makes it simple to see everything and not have to keep looking at the map every 5 minutes.

There I am with the WORLD!!!

They had Kangaroo's! I haven't see Kangaroo's at a zoo before!

My friend Cam is looking at the map wondering, "How big is this zoo?"

I have a huge fear of sharks, that is why I am pouting in the picture above.
We took a little boat ride while at the zoo...



My favorite sign at the zoo...We had a lot of fun! I look forward to going again someday. Cody and I hope to go to the Denver Zoo soon. I love going to the zoo and hope to visit many more in my lifetime.