WOW! Mom, Dad, and I went on quite an adventure today! We journeyed to Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge and what a treat we found!

We drove through over 180 acres of the coolest animals that come right up to your car! Ostrich, emus, deer, HUGE elk, llamas (which were super funny and greedy), giraffes, gazelles, oryx, wildebeest, bison, yak, watusi cattle, pigs, zebra, kangaroos, and even rhinos! But my favorite was definitely the camels. There are two types: dromedary which are probably the ones you are used to seeing (hump like a “d” only like 1000 lbs) and Bactrian, which are HUGE, 10 feet tall and 1800lbs!! It came right up, ate, and tried to steal our bucket, I laughed hysterically! Can’t wait to go back!

Canton and the Camel from Mike Murphy on Vimeo.

We got 18 inches of snow on Wednesday! Sadly, it was gone by Sunday. Hard to believe that we got that much snow! I had SUPER fun in it though and we built a snow FAMILY! Including Roxy and Baby #2!

Pap also came down and we went to John Deere Day! I got to ride a few tractors and even got a toy prize!

I sure love Harrisonburg just because I can go to Lowes or Home Depot pretty much any weekend and build something! Yesterday, it was a MONSTER TRUCK at Lowes! I was soooooooo excited!

Later we went to the planetarium and saw lots of stars and my favorite planet: Jupiter! Why is it my favorite? Because it is the biggest and it has a really cool storm on it!

That evening we made BROWNIES, I didn’t really like them though, you know me and sweets…I enjoyed some popcorn instead.

Also, I’ve been really into playing cards lately, notice how I got the BEST hand possible—without wild cards! What are the chances? Pap, next time take me to Vegas! 🙂

Thursday I got to go see our new baby at mommy’s doctor! I was sooooo excited to go and although I was a little disappointed in the images I’m still so excited to be a BIG BROTHER! During the ultrasound I kept saying that I couldn’t see the baby and that it didn’t look like a baby, but I really liked hearing the heartbeat. I also asked the doctor TONS of questions! Mommy and daddy don’t want to know what the baby is again, but I’ve been saying it is a girl, we’ll see soon enough! 🙂

Nanny and Rhonda sent me some stuff for Valentine’s Day! Isn’t my face so excited?! Nanny–I have REALLY enjoyed the stickers, mom is so excited 😉

Last week we ventured to the Discovery Kids Place and I had a TON of fun! I’ve gotten really interested in maps and countries lately, that was probably my favorite station, along with the car fixing station of course!

January sure has been a busy month! I started at my new school in Harrisonburg and have made many new friends. Brian, Annemarie, Adaline, and my girl Lilamae also came up for a visit! Here are some pictures of my recent adventures plus a few left over from Christmas!

Canton’s Christmas Video from Mike Murphy on Vimeo.

I was soooooo excited for Santa last night! We left him some skim milk (because I didn’t want him to have my whole milk) and some yummy chocolate chip cookies!

This morning, instead of going right to the tree, I went to the deck to check for reindeer tracks!!! I got a lot of good stuff and I’m so happy!

Christmas Morning 2012! from Mike Murphy on Vimeo.

Enjoy the pics! Merry Christmas Everyone! Miss and love you all! 🙂

This Christmas was celebrated early to work around everyone’s schedules, but hey, I’m not going to complain about multiple days of presents! Nanny and Grandpa got here on December 10 so I got to spend a LOT of time with them and I even had 7.5 days of Becky! I’m so thankful everyone game to see me!

We all knew this Christmas was going to be a little different without Mal, but we did the best we could without her. We definitely felt her during the days and she even let her presence be known with a Redskins win and some snow on Christmas Eve, Mal sure loved snow. We had a great time being together and spending time with one another. I know I definitely had fun with everyone and enjoyed all my new presents! Especially my Read-Along Thomas books from Rhonda, my new Thomas quilt that Becky made, and my bike from Nanny and Grandpa!!!!!!!! I even got a quilt from Mal that she managed to finish, that was a great surprise to everyone.

We love you Mal!

Oh, and yeah, if you can’t see it, that is a BIG BROTHER shirt I have on! 🙂