Go To The Zoo

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While on vacation in Colorado Springs, we visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. This particular zoo is known for having the largest giraffe herd of any zoo in the world. According to this sign, the giraffes were getting too big. Starting that week, they had made the transition to feeding them lettuce. Watch a video of the kids feeding the giraffes after the break.

This was in the "Budgie Bird" display. Budgie is short for budgerigar, or parakeet. This display has over a hundred free-flying birds that can perch on your arm or eat from your hand.

This area had three hippos. I was fascinated by not only their bulk, but by how close we got to stand to these enormous animals.  Their heads were bigger than the kids and it was pretty cool to see them eat. They just shoveled in the pile of hay, popcorn and fruit.

This is the view of us coming down the mountain on the chairlift. For as long as I can remember, I've never been afraid of heights. But this was the first time that I can think of that that I was nervous on something like this. I was riding with Tate and he has a difficult time sitting still. I made it clear to him right away that we couldn't move around too much and that if he wasn't going to sit back that he had to hold on to the crossbar. These are the types of changes that you never think about when you become a father.

Tate "smiling" from the chairlift.

Emery had been on a horse two or three times before this, unless you count on a carousel. Every one of those times were at zoos or festivals. Leigha and I were both amazed at how natural she was getting on to the pony. She swung up like it was something that she does every weekend.











I believe that this was the first time that Tate had ever been on a horse. He wasn't scared or worried at all. Just smiles.

And finally, this was one of the most amazing thing that I've seen in a long time. As we were standing at a window, watching an orangutan, he made a kissy face to Tate. When we told Tate to do it back, they started making kissing motions back and forth.