Zoo fun

We had a gorgeous day here yesterday, and decided to take advantage of the nice weather by making our first trip to the zoo since last year.

Sammy has apparently gotten over his fear of "giraffes at da doo," because he asked if we could feed them crackers before we ever even got there.


The little play area with the "huts" was the biggest hit of the day. So much so that we had to visit it on the way out, too. This is right next to our favorite little train, which sadly, has been closed every time we've been to the zoo since school started last August. Hopefully it will be opening back up soon!


The kids were nice enough to pose for some photos for mom... in the beginning before they got too tired from all the running around. (Can you believe that Sam spent less than 20% of the visit in the stroller this time!)


The zoo has free-roaming peacoks and peahens. We didn't see any hens today, but we did see two (or one far-travelling?) peacocks. I think this one smelled my bread, because it followed us quite a ways. They seem to have an affinity for people food...


Katie adores birds these days. Every morning we have to look for them out our back door, and any time we step foot outside the house. So her favorite place was the bird house. I almost couldn't get her out of there! They sell these little popsicle sticks with bird food glued to one end, that you can feed the birds with. A nice man gave Sammy his before the birds ate all the food off it. They loved feeding the birds.


It must be turtle mating season...


The new Rocky Mountain exhibit is finally open. The bear & trout exhibit is pretty high up the mountain. You have to take an elevator up to a bridge walkway to get to it. From the lookout area behind the elevator, the kids noticed the play-park down below and couldn't wait to get down to it!


This little guy in red's mouth and hands were covered in peanut butter from his sandwich, and he kept touching the glass, and reaching for Sammy with his sandwich hand, which made for one extremely nervous Mama! We quickly moved to a different part of the viewing area.


Aah, we finally made it to the "park!"


Sammy at the honeybee exhibit: "The honeybees are making honey for Pooh-bear!" (Aunt Roomie and her mama will be so proud!)


The playground is different. There are a couple of giant ants to climb on, some giant mushrooms that are too high for little kids to climb on, and a snake tunnel to crawl through. Also, the slide doesn't have a ladder, but holes. It's a pretty neat place.



The lion cubs have gotten very big!


As I mentioned, we had to return to the kids' area at the beginning to play in the huts again. These are right next to the meerkat exhibit, and Katie enjoyed watching the little guys for a while.


I tried to get some group shots before we left. Katie did NOT want to be in our picture!


I didn't know Uncle Scott had snapped this one of himself until I downloaded all the photos!


And we had to feed the giraffes one more time before we left, too.


It was a super-fun day! We all hope to get back there soon (maybe with Daddy this time!)