Monday, September 8, 2014

Going to the Zoo

252/365

Let's go out and play, it's a gorgeous day, we said.  So I met my sister in law and 8 month old nephew at the Zoo.   Jacob and Cole are only 8 months apart, so they are just beginning to interact, both with each other and with their surroundings.  So this visit to the Zoo was the first one that was Fun for both.


We started at the Oceans exhibit.  
The boys got a big kick out of looking at the fishies.  They liked the rays, and I liked how Jacob would look up when one would 'buzz' by.  Both boys loved watching the aquariums.  


Then we went around to Penguins.  
They were really moving around a ton, and so very enterta


The boys had a good time looking at the penguins hopping about, and talking to each other. 
These two beauties capture my eye.  


We stopped after the dolphin show to have our lunch.  The kids actually ate well, watching each other eat.  I think that helped motivate them.  Of course, they thought I was a nut taking their pictures all the time.  


This was Knobi, she was getting ready to do a quiz with one of the zookeepers when we arrived at the Orangutan exhibit.  This was the first time I got to see them.  They are big and beautiful.  And smart.  And curious.   


This one was reaching her arm under the window to reach at things.  We all were pointing at her trying to open it, but the keeper assured us the whole place was ape-proof.  Perhaps, but these guys are Awfully smart.  We watched as she played around with the wiring, but didn't do anything to it. 
 Just curious.  
 We watched as the keeper started a computer game, with a screen right behind where she's sitting in the picture, and  she had a couple pictures to choose from, one meant apple, one meant enter, and one meant go back.  She got about 80% of her quiz correct.  The keeper says she pushes all the buttons in all kinds of orders, not because she doesn't know, but because she's curious to see what happens when she does.


Then some of the others came back inside. 
We saw the ropes swinging though with all the people gathered around, it was hard to see the apes themselves.  But I was able to get this pick of Azy, the biggest guy.  


Then we went outside, and a couple young girls were saying Hi Charly, by Charly, and he was sitting right by them.  He had such pretty eyes.  I can't tell if they are happy out there or sad to be in a cage. Even still it is a great facility.  There is ton for them to do, I can't imagine they get too bored.  


Jacob was pretty intrigued meeting Charly too.  


Then we hit the dessert, or the back 9 as I like to call it.  The giraffes were out and about.  
The weather was Perfect to be back there, not too hot at all.  


This silly youngster was licking a tree.  


Erica's favorites are the elephants.  There were 6 of them out and about.  
I love the mamas out with their babies.  


And I lucked out, and noticed they put out a list of all the elephants names.  I like it so much better when I can learn the animals names.  We know they have them!  So snapped the list.  It's a little hard to read here, and I may have to go back and get it again.  But did you know, our zoo was the first to successfully do IVF on elephants?  Go us! 


After visiting the back 9 and stopping off at the restroom.  
We headed to the Gardens.  Unfortunately, the butterfly exhibit is all done. :(  But they had lots of pretty flowers in bloom, both inside and out.  The cosmos were blooming at the entrance.  Tall and Beautiful, I want to plant some along my own garden walk.  And lots of space inside for little boys to run around.  


It's impossible to refuse this face. Erica is going to be in Trouble!  I couldn't refuse him either, if he wanted to get out of his seat, as in this case, or really I think I would do anything he would ask me.  


Check out little Mr. Big Stuff cruising! 


I let Jacob out to cruise around too.  We were the only people in the Gardens there for a bit, so I had no worries at all about letting him explore.  


He really thought he was getting away with something.  
This was my favorite picture of him from the day.  Maybe my favorite picture overall. 

Once we got a few visitors inside the gardens, we headed outdoors to explore, and see what we could find among the flowers. 


Boo- we found a black dragonfly.  I didn't have to zoom up on him at all.  He let me get This C;ose.  


This pretty water lily was still in bloom too 


And we had to stop and take pictures of the boys by the canna lilies.  
They were Huge!  Taller than me! 


Erica was being silly over my shoulder as we tried to get both boys to smile.  Jacob looked at us like we were crazy.  Cole, on the other hand, thought his Mom was hilarious.   



These ended up being my favorite flower pics of the day.  Because of the bright blue sky.  


I didn't used to like canna lilies at all, they were too odd looking, not symmetrical in any way. 
But now I'm older, and their asymmetry has become beautiful to me. 


And these beautiful zinnias were blooming at the base of the cannas in the planter. 
Gorgeous! 


As we were heading out, I found a fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar.  
Jacob thought he was hysterical. I brushed near his hand so he could to tickle it.  And he just laughed and laughed.  And then tried to grab it himself.  He kept trying to hit the caterpillar, so I had to keep moving my hand out of reach of his hand before he would slap it...and squish it.  But luckily, not fuzzy wuzzy worms were hurt in this visit to the zoo.  


Last but not least, one last lavender cosmo for the road. 

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