Zoo Fun

I love going to the zoo. I love seeing the animals, and watching the faces of kids (especially mine) when they make noises, or start running and jumping. Yesterday, I got the chance to go to the Oklahoma City Zoo with Sarah and Eddie, Reno and Miranda, and, of course, the kids! Sarah and I packed a picnic lunch (she did most of it), and we proceeded to have a blast all afternoon.

Dallas and Josilyn leapt onto this turtle at the entrance to the "Island Life" exhibit, which, you will be shocked to hear, featured turtles. There were also some snakes, and bugs and spiders.

Walking along the boardwalk, Dallas decided he was finished with riding in the stroller, and hopped on the back of Sarah's Sit 'n' Stand to ride with Josilyn. It really was too cute to pass up.

Having climbed into the Sit 'n' Stand, Dallas leaned over the front part to see Isaiah as he chowed down on a blottle.

Bug was having a blast on the gorillas, especially this one that was short enough for him to actually climb on. The shadows in this one are a little funny, but Dallas and Josilyn are sitting on top of a huge gorilla statue.

Okay, these next two require explanation. Dallas and Josilyn wanted to stop and play on these bars, they're built in a curve that is about six feet high at the tallest point before going back down. In the first one, Dallas is standing on the second rung up, he'd climbed up by himself, and I thought it warranted a picture. In the second one, he's climbed up over my head, again all by himself. I took more than this, but I didn't want to crowd them, eventually, he reached the point where the bars level out before curving towards the ground, and couldn't get any farthur.

For a change, the weather was nice: warm sun, cool shade, cool breeze. We walked all over, with Dallas and Josilyn taking turns running around and giving us frights. A really neat place this zoo has is called the Oklahoma Trails, and it has exhibits with a lot of the different animals that were once very common in Oklahoma, but that have been displaced by human habitation. On the trail there was a nocturnal animals exhibit, it was done up in black lights. It had owls, bats, certain types of squirrel, and even a few rats.

The bears used to be in a much smaller pen, I was glad to see they'd been moved to a larger habitat.

This elk was just standing at the edge, looking at us, as if we were the attraction, so I was able to get a good picture of him.

This is a pygmy hippo, and he had just been fed, and thought I was going to feed him more. I got some pictures of his open mouth, but it isn't too appetizing, so I've left them out. He just kept coming up out of the water, flapping his ears, and every time I cooed at him, he'd open his mouth real wide and make this weird noise at me. It was really cute.

Although I had the camera with me, it was acting up, and I couldn't take all the pictures I wanted to. Some of the ones I couldn't take, were of Dallas and the fish exhibits. He loves watching fish, and we've considered getting a tank and letting him pick out the fish to go in it. We had a lot of fun, and Sarah and I talked about going to the museum next door to the Zoo, after the "Human Body" exhibit leaves. Poor Dallas fell asleep before we made it out to the truck, and didn't even wake up while I buckled him in. Josilyn spent the ride home telling Isaiah to "shhh" becuase Dallas was sleeping.