The Animal Kingdom

Last Tuesday Jace and I visited the zoo with our friends Lynsey and Ethan. Between this and our dinosaur adventure ... it was the perfect way to start our summer vacation. It had been awhile since I had been to the zoo. It has changed a lot! They enlarged many of the habitats for the animals. In doing so -- there are by far fewer animals than there used to be. It was fun to see the new, revamped zoo -- but I can't help but miss the hippo and lion (I don't remember seeing the lion!). To end our trip -- Jace and I spent some time on a polar bear ... on the carousel of course :) Apparently Jace's big brown eyes were WIDE open.
A few things I learned ... 1) the zoo is much more fun when you go with small people. I plan on bring Jace back again when he is old enough to recognize the different animals -- and to enjoy it more. AND 2) it takes SO much more time to do things when you have a baby. We had to stop once so Jace could eat ... then within 30 minutes we had to stop for Ethan to eat. I am not complaining though -- it was super fun!

Their elephant, Christie is pregnant! The "little" (350 lb) bundle of joy will grace the hogle zoo in August. We happened to be in the right place at the right time and were able to see the elephant show. It is amazing how an animal that is SO big can be trained. A new addition to the zoo is their snow leopard. Last time Joe and I were there we looked and looked for one -- there wasn't even any snow leopard plush toys in the gift shop. I was VERY excited to see one at the zoo. Since the snow leopard is my school's mascot -- I couldn't help but buying a few souvenirs to display in my classroom!