The Zoo

Ryker's school is awesome. His class is perfect for him and his teachers are amazing! And the school takes care of the whole family, not just the student. They check in on us regularly, make sure we're doing okay, and give us info on resources we would qualify for (food stamps, HEAT, WIC, etc.). This weekend they offered a trip to the zoo (for free! I love free)! Gina and Toby and Russell came too and we had a great time! (Brice, unfortunately, missed it because he had a scout camp out. He was bummed--he's been wanting to take the kids to the zoo for a while now.) It rained and hailed on us at lunch time, but otherwise was perfect. We got to see lots of cool animals, including a baby elephant and a rather amusing orangutan (he was performing acrobatics for all the onlookers).Look at that mouth!

I don't know what it is about this giant elephant statue, but the kids all love it! They could play on it for hours and not see anything else and be perfectly happy. I think we should build one at the nearest park...

Always have to get pictures on the statues...

This made me laugh! Giraffes are so strange!

And apparently we came on a day when this big horn sheep was in the mood for a little attention! He really seemed to be enjoying getting rubbed and petted!

I was a little concerned about the kids having their arms inside the fence like that because if the animal startled, he could easily ram them and break their arms. But how often do you get to pet a big horn sheep! So I decided it was worth the risk--he seemed docile enough... I'm crazy, I know.

Alaina is so funny about animals sometimes. She is SO interested and intrigued, but a little fearful too. So she'll go up to them for a second and then retreat. Or she'll wiggle and fight until I take her over to the animal, but then she hides in my shoulder. This time, she got brave for a second and I caught on camera! Lucky shot!

Uncle Toby posed this picture and I think it's a great one!

I wish it was easier to get pictures and to see into this habitat. The tigers are amazing (I think they might be my favorite), but I can never get very good pictures and their enclosure has lots of levels and hiding places. I saw more of them this time than I ever have before, but I didn't get any spectacular pictures. Which is too bad because it would be cool to have a better shot of this guy munching on a leg of lamb (or something).