Mini-Texodus, April 2014, Part 3

Grandpa planned a big day of adventure while we were visiting! Aunt Cyndi took her kids out of school for the day and we went to the Tracey Aviary AND the new Aquarium! It was so awesome.

 The aviary is about a million times better than what I remembered from my childhood and really worth a visit! It was fun to just focus on all the different types of birds that you sometimes pass over at a zoo. They have a lot of interactive areas for the kids, too.

This crazy old man picture is just because we inherited my parents Great Horned Owl picture and it is hanging in our library. We have named the owl "Sheldon" after Dad and we dress him up for Halloween (the owl picture, not my Dad...).

After the aviary and a picnic lunch, we all went to the brand-spankin-new aquarium. It was really crowded, but still super-neat and well worth dealing with the crowds- even though some of the tanks weren't occupied yet. 

These pics were taken just before EJ told me that she wanted to explore with just her, Sam and Grandpa. Well, then. Birdy, Janie, Aunt Cyndi and Thomas went off as a group so that is why you don't see any pics of them!

Bear LOVED the jellyfish. We probably spent a good 15-20 min just watching them.

EJ is pointing out one of my favorites- the cuttlefish!

They had a ton of seahorses. They were really interesting to watch.

The "shark tunnel" was really neat. You could see the sharks gliding all around. Bear thought that was pretty cool!

Zoo Day!

We were so lucky to go to the zoo with some of our very favorite people- Aunts, cousins, Grandma and Kim (who is like an Aunt!)  We were super-excited to see the new Rocky Shore exhibit and we weren't disappointed!

The otters FINALLY came out to play!

And we found this cute critter...

The highlight of the day was the Polar Bear, for sure. She likes to spend time swimming back and forth from a rock to the glass. It is very cool to see and be that close to her!

Notice how cute Bear is when he says "Polar Bear".  Here is one more video, with less screaming:

We also met "Big Boy"- the rescued sea lion.  He was swimming around and around his tank, too.

 Birdy wasn't too impressed with the sea lion, but she sure had fun with the baby!

I realized that I didn't take a ton of pictures with all the kids. I guess we were having way too much fun!

After the zoo, we went to Red Robin for some yummy food.  It was an awesome day.  Next time we'll have to spend more zoo time (and take more pictures!)

Day 4: San Antonio Zoo, Puke and Home

Since we had a (relatively) short drive home, we decided to have one more adventure, so we checked out the San Antonio Zoo. It was a pretty neat zoo. They claim to have the 3rd most animals of any zoo in the U.S. What they don't tell you is that easily half to 2/3 are birds or snakes. It was still really neat and we enjoyed it in spite of the heat and crowds.

Birdy wasn't feeling well, so we took pity on her and rented a wagon so she wouldn't have to walk as much. It was akward navigating the stroller and wagon through the crowds, but the girls thought it was great. I did have to get after them a bit to actually get OUT of the wagon so they could look at animals. They would have been content to lounge in there all day.

The zoo had a really neat exhibit where you could feed nectar to lorikeets (small birds from Australia.  Here is a video of the girls feeding their first lorikeets (as always, pardon my shrill mom-voice. I don't know why I do it!)

Maybe it's the name, and maybe it is because she was fearless, but Birdy was the bird whisperer and got this one to hop up on to her hand where she was only mildy freaked out to hold it. EJ wanted to hold a bird, but got scared when they came towards her... 

Birdy the bird whisperer in action:

 The birds were very friendly and liked to land on us big people (taller perch, I guess).

 At first I felt special having them be so interested in my nectar. But then one pooped on me and another landed in my hair, and specialness turned to fear (watch the blog for a very special "Mak gets pooped on" video later this week).  Between the lorikeets and another "birds of Australia" exhibit, I got pooped on three times an hour. It was a banner day, I tell you!

DMP and I were giddy, GIDDY I tell you, to see that this zoo had the plastic animal molding machines!  The kids didn't understand the nostalgic joy we felt, but they were really happy to each get their very own animal!

Remember these things? They smelled and are just like the ones from the Hogle Zoo when we were kids!

 After a while, Bear only wanted to ride in the wagon. But it was kind of like that song where the little bear says "Roll over" and pushes everyone else out of the bed... He wanted the wagon all to himself!

 The zoo also had an enclosed butterfly garden. It was really neat- butterflies flying everywhere!

 We even made a few butterfly friends. (I love EJ's face below)

 Forget giant hair bows and flowers, live butterflies are going to be all the rage!

 Even Bear got a little hitchhiker- I think this one was trying to blend in with his puppy backpack and shirt! He didn't notice his friend and we didn't point it out- we were afraid he'd freak out and hurt it.

To top the day off, we took a ride on their awesome zoo train. It goes all around the huge park that is next to the zoo- it was about 20 min and a lot of fun.  

Bear loved seeing and riding on the train the best of all.  We were lucky to be the first ones on so we could pick where we sat- the very back, of course!

After the zoo, we headed home.  Just as we stopped for dinner, Bear puked all over DMP.  That was special, I tell you. At least DMP was holding him at the time. His post-puke shirt change in the parking lot would have been a lot more akward for me! Bear seemed cheerful enough after and even ate a little, so the trip still ended on a (tired) high note :)

Dallas Zoo w/ Grandma and Grandpa K

The weather was BEAUTIFUL for our day at the Dallas Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa K. You can't beat 65 degrees at the end of December!  We had so much fun.  We headed to the big cat encounter first. It was so neat to see the big male lions up close (and these guys aren't even fully grown yet!). At the end they "stood up" and it was very impressive!

We all love the giraffes. Bear was especially interested in them this time and pointed and hooted excitedly at them :) 

 Birdy was wrestling this 'gator "just like big friend Andrew" (remember? her imaginary friend?)

Look! a wild baby in a cage!

EJ made a new penguin friend (shot with DMP's phone)

Dallas Zoo

 Our new friends, the Z family invited us to spend a day at the Dallas Zoo. It is a fantastic zoo- much bigger than SLC or Phoenix with some really interesting animals and enclosures. The Z family is really great. They have 3 kids- K, who is almost 6, A, who is 4 like Birdy and G, who is just two weeks or so older than Bear. We've had so much fun getting to know them and they have been so welcoming. (Can you tell I'm saying all this because I feel like saying "Look, see? We have friends! We aren't all alone in this big crazy place 1,000 miles from family and all that is familiar!).

 They have almost-life-size elephant statues near the African Savannah exihibit. The kids loved "riding" the elephants. This is Birdy's new friend. It is cute because she insists that we call her by her first and last name always...

 They have a pretty, wide-open elephant enclosure. It is next to a building set up like an African Safari base camp with a giant covered deck and big chairs. I'd love to go to the zoo and just sit in those chairs and watch for an hour or so.

Near the base camp building is a cafe with big glass windows that open directly on to the lion enclosure (as you can see). Very cool to be just inches from a sleeping lion!

One of our favorite things was the Giraffe enclosure. The viewing deck is up high, right at eye-level with the giraffes. You can even buy food to feed them (next time!). They had an adorable new baby giraffe and we got some fun video of him running. There are few things as cute as a running baby giraffe (your kiddos are going to want to watch this one!)

We had to cut our trip short. It got too hot and the babies decided they were done with skipping their nap. We definately need to go back and see the rest (but maybe when it's a bit cooler?)

Zoo!

On Saturday of EJ's Spring Break, we decided to go to the Zoo. We're glad we did since I swear it was the last warm day we've had since! Above is how Bear rolls in the stroller- kicked back and enjoying the ride.

Check out Birdy's awesome "Scary Spider" face.

I don't know if it was Birdy holding him or being inside a giant egg, but he loved this!

I love that they still do this when they are out walking places.

Birdy got a bird's eye view of the tiger pacing back and forth! We had so much fun watching baby Zuri.

They're scared of the shark, see? Get it?