Taking Advantage Of The Nice Weather!

Today was beautiful!
It was sunny and warm. =)
After the last week of snow and FREEZING temps, this was a welcome change!
Since it was so nice (and we were all getting cabin fever) we headed to the zoo with Grandma Logan.

We always check out the flamingos.

They are so pretty.

Today they were crazy loud though.

Maybe they were excited about the warm weather too. =)

Another pretty bird I like to see at the zoo is the peacock.

When I was growing up, the neighbor down the street from my grandparent's house had peacocks. Sometimes at night you could hear them yelling what sounded like "Help! Help!"

Kind of creepy when you're only 8 years old.......

(and you're welcome for that little peacock anecdote.)

The petting zoo is always a dangerous place.

The kids always want to feed the sheep.......

until they actually have food in their hands and they remember that the sheep aren't very nice.
Poor Riley got hit in the back before he could even get any food to feed them.

The sheep finally settled down long enough to get fed though.

Then we headed to the penguins!

The boys love to go to the reptile house.

There are 3 giant turtles (tortoise??)

Lily actually likes to come in here too.

She may be a girly-girl, but she likes to show her brothers she can do whatever they can do.

For instance, a zoo keeper took a snake out and let the kids touch it.

It didn't really surprise me that the boys ran up to touch it.

It did kind of surprise me that Lily ran right up there to touch it too!

I don't think it even occurred to her that it might be something to be afraid of.

She saw her brothers do it, so she knew she could too.

I love that!

I, however would not go near it.......

Next was the tigers.

I don't have any pictures of the real tigers.

Just the one that the kids always have to pose with...

The gorillas were out walking around enjoying the sunshine too.

This one came up really close to the glass and walked up and down the length of it.

This little hut in the gorilla house (along with various statues throughout the zoo) is one of the kids favorite things about the zoo.

Not the animals......

the hut and the statues......

But, what they actually enjoyed the most today, was this:

Running around outside!!! =)

Of course right after I took this picture, poor Lily tripped and fell into a puddle of water.

The first thing she said when I went to her though, was not how hurt she was, but:

"My favorite shoes!!!"

They were all wet & muddy.

Yep, definitely a girl....

Then we checked out the lions.

The last thing we saw were the elephants.

If you look closely at the bottom of his trunk, the elephant is picking up a piece of ice to eat.

He did this several times. It was really funny to watch.

We enjoyed our day out today so much!!

The weather this week is supposed to stay nice.

Hopefully it will.

I am SO over snow!!