Zoo Trip

We finally made it to the zoo today! All summer I had wanted to go, but we kept having to change plans for one reason or another. The weather was forecasted to be good, so I decided that today was the today. Of course, a lot of other people said the same thing. For the first time ever we had to park in the overflow parking lot and ride the shuttle. Apparently it was member appreciation day and the World Forestry Center and the Children's Museum, who share the same parking lot, had new exhibits that just started. We made it though, and it was not as crowded as I was anticipating. We saw pretty much everything except for some of the pens were being remodeled and they are doing the big addition for the lions and other African animals. The boys had lots of fun, even though I carried Evan most of the time despite having a stroller. he was being a bit particular, but it made up for not going to the gym today or tomorrow. Evan's favorite animal was the giraffe because it has a long, long neck, and then he added "like me." He, on several occasions, said that the crocodile, the snakes, and the bats were "too scary," but he always wanted to see them! He later claimed that the snakes were one of his favorites and that bats bite his neck, I guess because it is long, long. Eli's favorite was the hippos, so he said, because they eat fish. I think he liked the monkeys.

It was a very fun day and we could not have had more perfect weather!

A mandrill

A colobus monkey

The polar bear was very fun to watch as she was having play time with the barrels. At one point she drug them over to the water, pushed them out a little ways, and then jumped on top of them and flipped over. The boys thought it was very funny!

The patch is where she had an abscess and they had to shave her fur and lance it. Ti is interesting that they have such dark skin, but it is all part of how they stay warm because it absorbs heat better.

Look at those teeth!

We of course had to get a picture of the beaver. My camera did not like how dark it was however.

The long, long neck!

Scary!

It must be tough being a hippo!

I don't exactly remember the name of these, but it is a kind of antelope.

We had to wait in line for awhile, but we got to see one of the latest additions to the zoo, Samudra the baby elephant. She is about a month old and is very cute!

Of all things, they had belly dancers performing to Arabic music on the amphitheater stage. It was really neat and I explained to the boys that when I was their age, I lived somewhere where they danced like that and there were lots of camels and sand. I don't think it clicked yet, but someday. It was actually very nostalgic to listen to the music and watch the dancing!

Lunch break

Warty pigs from the Philippines

The other latest addition was the one of the warty pigs having three piglets. They are really cute and were scampering around everywhere. They were very tiny.