Fun at the Zoo

We have had a zoo pass for about half the summer, and have enjoyed spending a morning here and an afternoon there at the zoo.  Each time we go we go visit a different section of the zoo and we have a had a really good time!  Even Kaylee has enjoyed our trips to the zoo and all the funny looking animals she has gotten to watch.  The Indonesian Rainforest is one of our favorite areas as we get to walk through a tropical rainforest, complete with banana trees!  And bananas grow how?  Upside down!  How unique!  There is a little tree house in the rain forest that the kids always love to play in!

Australia is another fun area where we see all kinds of kangaroos.  This summer there were 2 kangaroos that had babies in their pouches!  We learned that the baby grows in the kangaroo's pouch similar to how a baby grows in a human mother's uterus.  They stay in the pouch from the time of conception until the time they are big enough and strong enough and full grown.  Then, they hop on out!  Who knew?  That was very very interesting!  The kids always love to climb up on the giant animal statues in Australia too.

The zoo has this fun train that the kids can climb in and on and play with.  Of course my kids love to play at the train.  Kaylee had a ball climbing in and out of each of the train cars and peeking out all the windows at me and her brothers.  And Cooper, our climber, found the highest point he could to climb on top of. He asked if he could get on the train's roof, and I told him no....so he found the next highest point, the smokestack.  Fun times!

One of the most fun and exciting animals at the zoo are the peacocks.  They roam the zoo freely and are not afraid of the people.  They just wander the entire zoo all day long.  Every time we see one, the boys get so excited.  Today, this peacock showed off his feathers for us - beautiful!  The boys even found a lost peacock feather on the ground that we brought home.  Such a beautiful bird!  They make a funny loud squaking noise that the boys try to mimic and they actually sound exactly like a peacock when they do it!  Sometimes the peacocks with squak back at them!  I don't know if peacocks can fly, but they can certainly jump or fly short distances.  Sometimes we will hear them in the trees, and one time last year one was sitting on the giant tall fence that bordered the zoo.  We were afraid he hop down and out of the zoo, but he never did.  They truly are amazing creatures!!

It's always fun to go to the zoo with friends.  Here are the boys with their good friend Bruce.  They are in the Safari area of the zoo in a safari tent canopy that keeps out the mosquitos!  It's another fun area for the kids to run around and play, which is much needed in between looking through cages and windows at animals!

The kids always remember the ducks that live at the pond behind the zoo.  So this day we made sure we brought a loaf of old bread to feed them.  When those ducks saw what we had for them, they came by the hundreds!  There were so many ducks, this picture does not do any justice!  They swarmed us!  They closed in on us like a police squad, just quacking and squaking away!!  It was pretty funny! They were awfully hungry ducks!!