Zoo

It was a beautiful day...and it was Earth Day... and a free admission day to the zoo! 

We all went... Emerson tried on my Cabela's hat that Lindsey had nabbed for Benjamin to wear...

Emerson, not really wanting to wear it, put it on Benjamin...

 

First stop, was to look at the flamingos. We were pointing out to the boys that some of them were standing on only one leg!

I'm not sure how fascinated they were by that...

The Rhea was pretty cool... she(?) was preening herself...

We all went through the aviary, which wasn't too exciting, except for walking through the chains that hung from the doors.  The boys liked that!  Outside the aviary was this wall with the wing spans of various birds.  My two babies, Lindsey and Gabe, compared their wing spans to the birds!

 

Um?  What do you want me to do?

Emerson was ready to compare himself to the Bald Eagle...um? a little smaller.

Uncle Donnie or Daddy, showed the boys how it worked...

Papa decided to show how tall he was and how wide his wing span was...

OK, now the boys got into it... "wings out"...

"wings in"...

"wings out"...

 

"wings are still out!"...

The boys both wanted to use the camera to take a picture...but I took pictures of them asking me to let them take a picture!

We went to see the red panda... Gabe was holding his baby boy up so he could see better...

  

How about a little smooch?

Donnie was holding his baby boy ...wait, no, he was holding his OLDER SON up so he could also see the red panda...

Red Panda

We decided to head into the Barnyard...

Wait, the boys still wanted to look at the red panda...

 

Here we go...my little Barnyard boys!  

Emerson and Papa looking at... can't remember...

"YeeHaw" yelled Emerson from the tractor...

"YeeHaw" echoed his cousin, Benjamin.

Next was the petting zoo.  I really had no idea how they would be about going in to pet the animals...

They loved it...

They petted and brushed the goat...

 

A photographer from our local paper was taking pictures of them with the goat and ended up running their picture in our newspaper!

Before Gabe and Emerson took off to head home, we stopped for lunch.  I thought it would be a grand time to try and get a picture of my guy and I with our three grandsons!

Peanut butter sandwiches were high on their priority list!

Uncle Gabe was being silly with Benjamin!

Gabe and his baby sister were discussing their little men...

The little men continued with their peanut butter sandwiches...

 

The redwoods are beautiful...and this day at the zoo was absolutely perfect weather!

 William was so happy, he gave his Mimi his first smile for the camera!

 We left the zoo and headed toward our cars...it was time for Emerson to head back with his Daddy...and time for Benjamin to go to Mimi's and take a nap...

 We've SO enjoyed having the boys here...it was hard to say bye...so Papa got one last picture with his two older boys...

 Mimi needed one too!

THIS..having my family around me...makes me so happy!