A Trip To The Zoo

Yesterday morning we made a trip to the zoo with my parents. As always it was great fun.

Here are the boys all ready to go.

We paused at these rocks for a minute on our way in. The boys enjoy running around and climbing on them... and of course sitting by Poppo.

Soon we were headed into the zoo and Nathan and Poppo were off in a flash while...

Grandma and Benjamin and I were bringing up the rear. David was somewhere in the middle taking pics (and I'm so glad he was - it's very blog worthy in my opinion).

I made sure I had a good hold on my wiggly Benjamin who kept trying to lean over to get a better look at the turtles.

Being able to feed the giraffes is one of the best things about our zoo. I've been feeding giraffes here since I was the boys age - long, long ago. It's so fun to share that experience with my sons now.

David even got some video of the feeding. It's great as long as you're not bothered by giraffe slobber.

My dad got plenty of exercise (as did David and I) picking up and setting down his grandsons so they could see the exhibits better. Here he's got Benjamin...

and then Nathan. They're looking at the hyenas I believe.

I don't normally put in pics of the animals in my posts about our trips to the zoo (I figure you can go see the animals for yourself plus it might make the post a too long - HA! - like I'm worried about that!) but I really like this shot David caught of this bird.
In the same area as the bird pictured above were these other smaller birds.

As we were watching the smaller birds and feeding them bits of our crackers, one of them puffed up and shook his feathers. The boys thought that looked really funny and tried to imitate it, Their replay was really REALLY funny.

As we headed off, Nathan was a nice big bro and pulled Benjamin along in the wagon.

Before too long though Benjamin had bailed out and everyone was running along ahead of Poppo and the rest of us.

I like this video because it shows just how much Benjamin walks like my dad. I think that's pretty neat. My dad walks just like his dad, my Poppop who passed away when I was five. That walk is definitely a generational thing.

Nathan and I had a nice stroll through the butterfly garden even though there weren't any butterflies around.

The boys tried to climb up on the caterpillar but were still a bit small to make it by themselves and they did not want any help so this was as close as they got to sitting on it this time around.

Benjamin did have a nice chat with the caterpillar before leaving though.

Our next stop was the duck/geese/fish feeding area which was another one of my childhood favorites.

David got some video of this as well.

I had a great idea that we could take a nice family shot with the lake behind us and everything. Well, that was only good in theory. In reality neither boy was too keen on the idea therefore this was as good as it got. Nathan stopped and watched the lion who was actually sitting up for a moment.

Poppo has a good hold on Benjamin here as he looks at the buffaloes. I like the giraffe over Benjamin's left shoulder

The boys also checked out the jaguars...

and the black bear...

and the monkeys.
I like the perspective on this pic as Benjamin looks down the stairs as Grandma and me.

Now here's both of my little cuties heading down the stairs.

I also like the indoor bird sanctuary area, which was added after my childhood years. There are so many different species of cute little birds flying around in there. The snake house was getting crowded so I didn't tarry long in there. Instead I headed out to this bench with the wagon. Grandma and Benjamin soon joined me.

We stopped at Fort Imagination for a little while after our zoo adventure so that will be the topic of my next post.