And then the next day we took a fun little trip to the Rio Grande Zoo, where we haven't been since last year. We bought memberships to the zoo as a family Christmas present, but we've been spending most of our time at the Aquarium and Botanic Gardens, and of course, Explora.
One of the immediate things we noticed is the number of babies and young animals around the zoo. We were all enthralled watching the antics of the babies and their interactions with their Mothers and the other animals they shared space with. They were all so darn adorable!
One of the Chimpanzees had the most precious sleeping infant resting on her chest. We could hardly get enough of just gazing at them both and admiring their similarities to us. But we also felt a little uncomfortable as if we were intruding on their peaceful, private moment.
The baby giraffe was too cute! It was such a spirited little thing and every so often it would jump up and do a little boing~kick, sort of like a 'bunny binky' or a guinea pig popcorn', in a sign of happiness.
There were a number of baby zebras, too. Jenna loved watching them and talking to them in her own zebra language interpretation. It seemed to work, too, because several of the zebras stopped to look at Jenna and answer back!
A very curious and inquisitive Ostrich. We were really into the birds today for some reason, and stopped to enjoy them every chance we got.
Chief Jem asked his royal servant (me), to take his picture posted in his most high and proud throne. Beside Chief Jem, is his loyal warrior, Sir Jax. And between Chief Jem's feet, is his ever joyful, singing Jovial Jester Jen. What I do to make the royal family happy.....
The hippos were enjoying a lovely, relaxing soak in their cooling tub.
A vulture, perched above what we call, "The Jurassic Park III Walkway" because it reminds us so much of the Pteranodon Aviary in that movie.
We love this walkway and wonder if, when the zoo planned it, that they might have had the Jurassic Park III movie in mind. It is such a unique feature of our zoo.
While we were taking a rest and planning our Letterbox strategy, one of our friends walked by, Terri, the wonderful lady who adopted our loveable Catahoula Leopard dog, Thorn, last summer.It was so terrific to see her again.
Then Terri offered to take a picture of me with the kids. Which is something I don't get to do very often. "Always the photographer, rarely the subject......"
The kids wanted to stop off and play in the large climbing structure in the middle of the zoo, while I enjoyed admiring the enormous cottonwood tree, the peacocks, and the giraffes, across the way. Jenna was pretending to be a fierce tiger.
Jenna has a big thing for statues. Mostly animal statues, but basically any kind of statue she can touch and climb on. Here she is perched on the Komodo Dragon statue near the children's playground, inside the zoo.
Jackson posing with a peacock sitting up on a rock in the trees behind him. There were so many peacocks out today and many were in the mood for love. The zoo sounded like the howling of neighborhood mating cats at midnight. And the males pranced around showing off their tail feathers to just about anything, including people, trees, the other zoo animals, a piece of paper on the ground, or a bush.
This silly handsome male was showing off, for what seemed to be a large rock, but the train that goes by, and all it's passengers were much more appreciative than the rock.
Jackson & Jeremiah standing in front of the prairie dog enclosure, which was filled with adorable baby prairie dogs, discussing the next trail to take and the clues to find the letterbox.Later on, Jeremiah discovered the box and won the box's "First Finder" Certificate inside! He was so thrilled he danced and sang all over while showing off the certificate! Today's letterbox was a very exciting and fun find.
At the entrance to the zoo there is this really awesome and fascinating contraption filled with all sorts of musical instruments. It's very similar to the old "Player Pianos" that basically played music by itself. Except the big differences, are that there are many more instruments than just a piano. And best of all, they all synchronize together to play a wonderful variety of tunes. It's quite impressive to watch the many instruments playing, as if by played by ghosts.
We spent alot of time enjoying the music and watching how the whole thing works. Jackson & Jeremiah enjoyed choosing songs for the 'band' to play, too.
The main building with most of the instruments.
The kids posing with the strong and bold bison statues. Notice my free-spirit Jeremiah is IN the water.
What makes me smile about this picture, is that I have a similar picture I took of my sons, in their stroller, with my best friend, Aeri, when Jax and Jem were about 8 months old.
Before they were born 10 years ago, I worked at the zoo as a Docent and spent many hours observing the zoo animals, educating the zoo visitors, and just enjoying the many pleasures of the zoo. Even after my sons were born, we would visit the zoo often to stroll, play and enjoy the animals.
It's really a great feeling to be back home again.
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