A Trip To The Zoo

Last Monday we took a family outing to the Abilene Zoo. It was a lot of fun. A man that was there with his mom and daughter took this family picture for us underneath the giraffe walk over. Then David took a picture of his family for him with his camera. Abilene may not have the greatest zoo in the world but we do have a pretty cool giraffe area. Also, it is just the perfect size zoo for our us to take our boys to right now. We saw the whole zoo, some areas twice, in about two hours. We'll make it a point to visit some bigger zoos (like Ft. Worth and San Antonio) once the boys are a little older.

Here the boys are up on top of the walk over feeding the giraffes.
As you can see here the boys weren't quite tall enough to see over the wall very well into some of the zoo exhibits - even tip-toeing - but

they soon learned that they could stand up in the cart (being steadied by David or I of course) and then they could see great. I like the shadow of David's hands and the camera as he took this picture.

This is one of my new all-time favorite pictures. I like everything about it. I like the wind in their hair. I like the giraffe in the background. I like the bright morning sun and the way it makes the boys hair shine. I like Benjamin's little finger pointing at the elephants. I like this moment caught forever of my husband and sons taking a morning away from the hustle a bustle of every day life to enjoy God's amazing creation together. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Here's another nice shot of David and the boys, this time watching the buffalo.
Another perk I like at the Abilene Zoo is the area for feeding the ducks, geese, and fish on the lake. I remember liking it as a child and now I get to enjoy it with my own children. Too cool.

I like the way the lake looks out in front of the boys in this pic. The just seem so small.
These next two pictures highlight one of the parenting differences between David and myself. There is no way I would ever stand there behind the boys with them facing into the prairie dog area and not have a firm grasp on them in some way. I try not to be too paranoid but sometimes I just can't help myself. David on the other hand tends to be little more lax. That's okay though. We make a great team. If we were both as paranoid as me we'd never leave the house.
As we were leaving the zoo we snapped these cute shots of the boys playing on the rocks outside the zoo entrance.
Peek-a-boo.
Now of course we saw lots of amazing critters on our trip to the zoo but I won't make this entry any longer than it has to be by adding our pictures of the monkeys, zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, turtles, birds, etc. Visit any zoo and see them in person - pictures never do them justice anyway.


I will however share this picture with you because it was my first ever sighting of baby peacocks. The were all so cute scurrying along side their mom.

I will also share this one last photo of some wild life mainly because it wasn't actually at the zoo. After we finished at the zoo I wanted to go see how high the water was over at the other end of the lake. (Yes, I am a hick and I drive around to look at water.) When we got to the other side of the lake behind Nelson Park there were all these duck and geese and...a pelican. That's right, a pelican. He was just there out roaming free with the other water fowl like he belonged there right in the middle of West Texas. My first thought was 'boy, you sure are lost' but I then I thought maybe he heard that there wasn't any competition out here for his unique fishing skills and he decided to come rule the roost in - of all places - Abilene, Texas. Whatever the reason, I think it's kind of cool that we have a free range pelican here in our little community.

Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens." God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:20-21