Fun at the zoo :)

It was a really hot day (and today I have my furnace on--what's up, Mother Nature?) so we spent a lot of time in the Bird House since most of the rooms are kept fairly cool.  When you first walk in, you are in a large L-shaped room with lots of different birds.  The benches (see the background of this pic of Iz) have bird feet and my kids get a kick out of those every single time we go.  And we ALWAYS have to sit on the "bird benches", at least for a few minutes :)


One of S's favorites is the owl--he is always dozing up on a branch when we come and we have to watch him for a while to see if he wakes up ;)  You can just barely see him up at the top of the photo to the right.  S got some little pocket pals as souvenirs and he wanted a picture of his favorite one (a hatching turtle) and the owl but unfortunately, it was one or the other ;)

Even with the cooler air inside the Bird House, my busy little B was still hot hot hot.  I call him my sweaty little man because this kid sweats all the time.  His preschool has even had to change his shirt before because of all the sweating :\  Poor kid takes after me--hot all the time!  Everyone else will be huddled under blankets and he and I are turning on the fan LOL 

One of our favorite rooms in the Bird House is the large open-air aviary.  There is a short fence bordering the walkway to keep people from traipsing all over the room but most of the birds are free to do as they please.  Iz just walks up and down the path, stopping to peek through the fence or screech BIRD and point at the flying ones.  B likes to stay in one spot and just stare at whatever birds come closest to him.  And S likes to go talk to the bird that is caged because he likes to bite people (he needs the company, Mom.  Most people don't stop to say hi to him). 

I think my favorite picture of Iz from that day is one of her in the large open aviary, walking down the path, swinging her arms side to side while she tries to imitate bird calls :) 

Now the boys, I couldn't decide on just one favorite picture so I have two picked out :)  They kept insisting on posing together so both are a "brothers" shot :)  First, they are in front of a giant inflatable elephant :)  May is the birthday of Louie, a male elephant born at the zoo (I want to say seven years ago?  Maybe eight?  I don't remember exactly) and every year they throw a party for him.  Elephants are my favorite thing to see and it has rubbed off on the boys and they are always excited to go see the elephants, especially now that there is another little baby elephant born last year :)  The second photo S calls "walking on water."  There is a wooden walkway/bridge that curls up over the hippo exhibit and a window on the floor lets you look down into the exhibit and possibly see the hippos again if they are in that area.  The boys love to look through the window and then stand on it LOL