Tiz, a Coffee Ceremony, and a Lady Bareback Rider

Just look at this absolutely beautiful face that greeted John and I on our visit to Oshkosh today. We hadn't seen our Tiz for two weeks and I am still trying to figure out how she grew up in that short amount of time! She was wearing her hair free and natural and her attitude and personality matched the hair perfectly and not in a bad way. I wouldn't have to write another word, you would be able to figure out how fun our day was just by seeing this face, but I am going to document it anyway.
It was nice to go up to Oshkosh. It has been awhile since we have seen Tiz in her own element where she is the queen bee. It reminded me of the months when she first came home and we traveled up to see her because she wasn't out and about yet. It was a nice day for sure. Tiz decided that we should start with a traditional Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony orchestrated by none other than the queen bee herself.

We started by spreading a beautiful Ethiopian scarf on the floor. Courtney let us use the real pot and dishes that they brought home from Ethiopia for our ceremony. Here Tiz is pretending to pour coffee in Grandpa's little cup.

And now it is my turn to get my coffee. We were also eating popcorn since that is what is sometimes served at a coffee ceremony

The only real problem with the Coffee Ceremony was that neither John nor I drink coffee so we switched it out for Diet Coke. Tiz had some orange juice. It was a most lovely ceremony. We spent about a half hour drinking our "coffee" and just chatting. After all we had two weeks to catch up on in each other's lives.

After the ceremony we headed over to the zoo which is across the street from Tiz's house. She knows the zoo well and was a wonderful zoo guide as she showed us around and pointed things out. Here she is showing Grandpa the wolf.

Then if was time to ride the zoo train. Tiz sat in her own seat behind Grandpa. I was behind her. It was a great train ride.

Here is our own little bare back rider. She was doing tricks as she rode the Merry go round. Each time she came past us, she was performing a new trick. It was quite funny. Perhaps a circus star is in her future.

And finally, it was a big popsicle to restore energy lost on our big adventure.

And here is how we all looked after our fun day! We sure are glad you are home, Tiz! We missed you and you went and grew up on us in two weeks! Don't let that happen again.