Lincoln Park Zoo and the baby zebra

We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo this weekend! Mr. F and I got brunch in Lincoln Park and then walked through the zoo to see the baby zebra! The little boy was born this summer on August 23rd.Source: chicagoist.com via Emily on Pinterest

The colt's name is Kito, which is Swahili for "jewel". The mama zebra's name is Adia and the dad zebra's name is Clayton.We had so much fun watching it run around the pen.Kito was so cute with brown and white stripes. He even had a fuzzy mohawk along his spine!Kito reminded me of our baby horse, Zoe, so gangly and uncoordinated. He was all legs.When we walked by the warthogs, Mr. F proudly annouced this was a poop colored Pumba. The child next to him, instantly, goes, "Daddy, daddy, it's a poop Pumba." Now he knows that children repeat everything you say, whether you mean it our not!Surprisingly, Sunday was warm at nearly 70 degrees! 

It was super blustery too.

Shockingly, it dropped 30 degrees by Monday morning and even snowed lightly. Fortunately, the weather is warming up again and should be sunny and about 50 degrees for Katy's wedding this weekend!

Groupon Riding Lessons at Bell Acres

My cousin, Katy, and I got a Groupon for riding lessons and we finally redeemed them last weekend and this weekend.We drove out to Homer Glen where the Bell Acres kitties  greeted us as soon as we got out of our car!

For our first lesson, we had horses named Trotsky and John John. We also saw a cute hackney pony too!We had our second lesson last Sunday and we rode two different horses, Reba and Maggie.Today, we had our third and final lesson. The cute orange cat greeted us again. However, our lessons were a lot harder today. I have never ridden saddleseat before and it was really difficult! I wasn't used to the double reins or holding my arms at a higher angle, even the bits look completely different than the basic snaffles I'm used to!  Katy and I are looking for riding lessons at a Hunter/Jumper or Western barn next!

Cute horse and pup video

I had to share this cute video of a French Bulldog and Mounted Police horse. Enjoy!

A winter kiss!

A valentines kiss to you all
Originally uploaded by weekend2008 aka Helgi Skulason

It has been chilly in Seattle so I'm thinking of packing for Cabo a week early. These adorable, furry ponies made me smile and melt a little, so I wanted to share them with you all! Happy winter!

Vyšehrad on September 17th

We got lost looking for Vysehrad on the 17 tram on Friday, September 17th. Fortunately, we backtracked easily and found the "castle on the heights". There were phenomenal views of the city from on top of the hill. Our favorite part was walking along the castle walls!

 Princess Libuše (read “Libushe”) was the first woman to rule Prague and married a humble ploughman Premysl. Together they started the Premyslid dynasty that would rule for 400 long years. Libuse is said to have foreseen the seven hills of Prague growing into a marvelous city (which indeed happened), thus she’s considered to be the mother of beautiful Prague.

Libuše was also the wisest of three sisters!

The ruins of the old fortifications overlook the Vltava River. 

 The tram from Vysehrad took us right by the Dancing House, so we took a quick photo opportunity. 

After lunch, we went for a boat ride down the Vltava!

 It was great to see the Charles Bridge from different angles. 

The statue detail of the Cechuv Bridge was my favorite part of the boat tour. 

We decided to wander around the trinket shops in Old Town after our boat trip. We didn't find anything that we needed but I got my photo taken with the horses!

 September 17th was also the start of the Prague Wine Festival. It was a short walk from our hotel on Slovansky Island.

 We didn't particularly care for the overly sweet Moravian wine, but we did find a new dessert wine....Hungarian Tokaj is AMAZING! 

Ciao!

Equestrian Shoot by Jose Villa on M loves M & OnceWed

Earlier this month, I saw this sweet photo shoot titled, Love is in the Air by Jose Villa.

 [All photos are from Jose Villa and M loves M.]

I adore these amazing equestrian themed photos, also featured on M loves M and OnceWed. If we ever have a wedding anniversary photo session, I would love it to be like this one with the lovely couple from M loves M.

Jose Villa lends such a magical, romantic quality to these photos. Each picture looks like a grown-up, little girl's dream.

These ribbons remind me of mine from horse shows as a teenager. They now lay dusty in my parent's horse barn, so perhaps I should dust them off!

Jose Villa also has a stunning photography blog, check it out! 

The light in this barn is makes it look so charming and gives a fairy-tale quality to the shoot. I'm quite envious of the fashionable Mara, the blogger behind M loves M.

[All photos are from Jose Villa and M loves M.]