My own Ricky Bobby

For Christmas, I gave Chris a driving experience with the Rusty Wallace Racing company. They were coming to Memphis, and I knew he would love it. Today was the day of the event!

The suits were pretty cool looking

And I was especially happy to see these

Here's Chris in his official racing suit. 

He got the green car, and it was easy to spot him on the course. He had to climb through the window, just like the real racers. 

Then came Brandi. Oh Brandi. 

I'm sure there was some very official business going on here. 

He's just about ready to go!

This is the part where I realized I will never be a race car driver. This guy comes over, and he started strapping Chris in, pulling cords, securing his helmet and lowering the netting. 

My claustrophobia almost made me turn away.

  But then it was real racing time!

I took a lot of photos, but when I got home, I realized they all pretty much looked the same at this point. There was just no way to capture how fast Chris was driving. But here are a few of him going around the track. 

Thankfully, all 15 laps were green flags. That means no wrecks or issues on the track. 

This video is a little loud, but you can see him drive!

All great things must come to an end, and here he is pulling back into the pit. (I learned very official words like that today.)

Here he is with his green car.

One of the racing company guys let me hop the wall to get a photo with Chris and the car. 

I think it was a pretty good day.

Photography fun at the zoo

We have had some amazing weather recently, and Chris and I have made two trips to the Memphis Zoo. I've decided that the zoo is a great place to play with my camera. There are so many interesting little (and big) animal faces!

Here are a few of my favorite shots. Some of these were taken through the "glass" areas of the exhibits so the color looks off, but there were plenty of opportunities to shoot without any real barriers. 

I call this Drippy Mouth, and it was shot through the glass area. 

This one was shot from the outdoor observation area, and you can see the difference. 

This glass didn't look this dirty or foggy, but my camera picked up on every texture in it. Either way, here is Chris really close to a bear!

Bear tongue. 

Some random kid and Chris--again, really close to a bear!

I would name this one mohawk.

Doesn't he/she look like he/she is smiling!

A little more tongue.

We saw some really good bear fights too. Sometimes it looked like they just wanted to kiss, but then a fight would break out. 

I like the curly-q ability of the trunk.

I'm pretty sure this Panda looked right at me and smiled. 

The otters are one of my favorites!

This dude looks old. 

And well-clawed.

Pretty!

Unfortunate beak issue there, but pretty.

Meerkats! Another favorite of mine. Look at those cute faces.

Some tiger tongue. 

Tiger yawn!

It turned out to be a good afternoon for a nap.