The Zoo

Justin had to go to the doctor in the morning and his doctor is near the zoo so we were able to make a day of it and have some fun too.  I dropped off Mary and Travis first and then went to the endocrinologist with Justin (He's doing well: TSH level is down, T3 good, T4 still low.  Back in another four months, labs to check levels before the appointment.)  Then we went back to meet up with them.  It was a little cool so the animal were moving!  Usually they lounge around in the heat, so this was the first time we saw them active.  The lionesses did a little playful fighting for us even.

 

 

 

We were able to go to the new African area of the zoo.  Justin wanted to see the giraffes so we made sure to check them out.  We even got to see them eat.  Justin has gotten so good with talking that he said "zoo", "g-raff", (the sign for elephant), and "ape".  That just about sums up what we saw!

 

Travis decided that his new favorite animal is the cheetah.  He just learned that it's really fast so that was cool to him.  So we had to take a trip to see the cheetahs.

 

And take a few pictures too.  Alaina just slept.  So did Benjamin (Mary's foster baby).  He got his picture taken with the Houston zoo sign to show that he had been there!

 

 

While I was at the doctor with Justin, Travis and Mary wandered through the zoo.  When they came to an animal, Mary would read the sign about the animal.  (This was Travis' school for the day so we wanted him to learn something.)  After the 8th sign or so, Travis said "blah blah blah" when she started reading!  So she stopped reading and waited for me to come and take over.  How do they get attitudes so quickly?

 

Travis' assignment when we go to the zoo is to pick and animal and write three sentences about it.  So Travis picked the cheetah on this trip and he wrote: "Cheetahs run 70 miles per hour.  They live in Africa.  They eat small animals."  And Justin had to write something too.  Because Travis did.  You know how that works, right?  One interesting thing I learned is that at top speed they can travel up to 30 feet per stride.  That's amazing to me!  God made such amazing animals with such unique and interesting skill sets.  It's so fun to watch them in action.

 

Then on to the monkeys and gorillas.  Of course, thanks to Silly Songs with Larry we know which is a monkey and which is an ape.  We sang the song several times.

We finished the trip at the elephants.  We got in at the end of the zoo keepers talk and we learned about elephants training.  And the fun part was seeing the elephants do the things the keeper said that they do.  Like how they interact and have real personalities.  Another totally interesting God-is-so-cool moment.

 

It was a fun excursion with our friend.   She enjoyed our warm weather zoo compared to her cold weather zoo in Minnesota.  She has penguins and polar bears, we have elephants and giraffes!  They both are fun so now it's our turn to visit her zoo!