Somebody’s watching and other zoo pictures

Did I mention that Uncle Norris gave them a zoo pass for their birthday? No? Because I was taking a blogging break? Well, then, let me tell you an awesome thing! Uncle Norris gave them a zoo pass for their birthday! We’ve gone like four times, and it paid for itself after ONE visit. ONE visit, I tell ya’!

On this particular visit, we were in the gorilla house watching this gorilla. It was at the back of the room, but it wandered up to the glass. One of the workers warned us that he (the gorilla, not the worker) could sometimes get aggressive and it the glass to try and scare visitors. A kind of play? Caged animal boredom? Just a gorilla with a bad attitude? Anyway, he walked right up to the glass and sat down to watch US for a while! This isn’t the greatest picture, but you can see that he is watching over Peanut’s shoulder.

Also recently seen at the zoo: two adorable boys who chose to sit in the peacock seat (that doesn’t move) while riding the carousel. It sure is pretty, but I thought that they would rather go up and down, up and down.

What’s this? Two left feet. Literally. We were half way through a six-hour zoo visit when I finally realized that Peanut had on two left flip flops. He never complained about it, but he did keep losing one of them when he tried to run or play. Go figure.

One of their favorite things to do is play on the elephant. This thing is pretty cool. It’s life sized, but as you can see, it is painted with an African-looking theme. Kids can sit on the trunk which parents and grandparents love to use as a photo opportunity. The elephant makes noises like its tummy is rumbling, or it plays a song (pop goes the weasel), or makes other trumpeting noises. The funniest (and most fun for the kids) thing that the elephant does is sprays water out of its trunk as if it is sneezing. All the kids wait and wait and wait for this to happen. The anticipation mounts, and everyone is on edge, and then it sneezes, and all of the kids scream and laugh. It’s one of the best spots at the zoo!

Another exciting activity: flirting with older women. Here, the polar bear (somewhere in the enclosure behind Peanut) was jumping into the water over and over and over. This bear was having a GREAT time. All of the people were oooo-ing and aaaahhhh-ing and laughing over this belly-flopping bear. Peanut? He couldn’t be bothered with this because he was too busy talking to Leslie, the volunteer bearing interesting animal facts. Seriously, couldn’t drag him away. Oh, and he was saying all the right things, you know. “I like Thomas.” “I have Thomas and Percy and Rusty and Salty and Diesel 10 but not Diesel because he broke and Molly and James and Splatter and Sir Topham Hatt and and and…” I’ll bet Leslie was wishing she was 5-years old again. Or that we would ask an actual question about the polar bear….

(OH MY HELL. I really need to figure out why this is posting in the same position that I take the picture. I rotate and save in a normal view. I don't understand why it saves differently than how I save!!!)