Zoo Day!

Yesterday was a day of pure delight! Animals. Strollers. Kiddo's. Fun. You know, all the goodness that comes from a day at the zoo. It had been a few years since I had visited Utah's very own. The last time I had been to Hogle Zoo, it was on a slightly odd date haha. So whoosh! I'm glad to now have a new memory of this zoo.

And what a fun memory I have fresh in my mind. We had such a great time. I was able to go with some of Eric's family. Since three of us were educators, we can give all the credit to Spring Break for this little zoo trip. We can also give all the credit to Spring Break for the MASSIVE amounts of people there. I don't think I have ever seen so many strollers in one place before haha. But the ooh's, ahh's, and wide smiles that came from seeing the fascinating animals were so worth fighting the crowds. I seriously felt like one of the hundreds of giddy children roaming around. My camera was just a-flashin' all day long.

We saw some incredibly beautiful animals...

And some, well, not so beautiful animals...

We also came up with a theory that some of the zoo animals are literally insane. I mean, think about it: if you were caged up in a small little space either by yourself or with one other person and had absolutely nothing to do but just sit, walk, swim or play (in a very confined space), wouldn't you go nutso too? I sure would. My mother-in-law heard that for an ocean animal, like a seal or sea lion, to swim in one of the pools provided by the zoo, they feel like we would feel sitting in a bathtub. Ity bity living spaces... that's all I can say. Poor animals. Anyway, the reason that we believe this theory of mentally unstable animals living in the zoos is because of the following animals. Say hello to the pole-licking giraffe and the cardboard box-eating gorilla.

We watched the giraffes for a solid seven minutes, and this guy wouldn't stop licking the pole and tweaking his jaw the whole entire time. Iron deficiency? Possibly. Insanity? More than likely.

This big gorilla-friend was one of a few monkeys that were sprawled on their backs, eating cardboard. Who eats boxes all afternoon? A crazy gorilla! The poor thing had a crazed look in his eyes the whole time and would pick up a full cardboard box, rip a big hunk off of it, then tear it down to chewing size and begin the munching. Hungry? Maybe. Toothache? Slight chance. Psycho? I wouldn't doubt it.

But what was even more fun to see than neat-o animals was the sweet faces of our niece and nephews. Gosh, they are cuties! I couldn't have scored better in the cutest nieces and nephews category than I did when I married Eric. 

 Kimball

Zach

 Avery

 Taylor

We had such a fantastic trip to the zoo. By the time we left, we were all pretty ready to be done. How badly I wish that adults could ride around in strollers at the zoo. Now, that would be the life! This fun little trip got me even more excited for Disneyland with this crew in June. Woo hoo!

The only thing that could have made this day better would have been to have Eric along with us. He is in the middle of projects and finals and wrapping up another semester. I'm not going to lie, I do not miss that part of college. A "grown-up" job has it's own set of challenges, but the finals... yep, I'm glad that phase of my life is tucked away into the memory books. And our lovely zoo day will go into a special spot in those books as well!