More Zoo

I know I just blogged about a zoo trip, and I try not to blog about every little thing we do, but we went back to the zoo yesterday and it was such an extraordinary trip that I just have to document it!

The weather was beautiful and the boys took good long naps so we decided to spend the afternoon at Cleveland Park and the Greenville Zoo.  We actually didn't make it into the zoo until about 4pm (they close at 5) so we just went around hitting the bigger exhibits and enjoying the fact that we had the place to ourselves.

We walked past the elephants and turtle pond first and Austin spotted a black swan swimming around.  He kept saying "black duck, quack, quack, duck say quack quack!"  We tried explaining it was a swan, but Austin insisted it was a black duck.

We moved on.

Our first interesting sight was a Kookabura catching and then consuming his dinner, a poor helpless mouse.  A little horrifying, I know, but very interesting.  I won't go into details...

A few exhibits later we decided to peek in on the jaguar.  We've been to this zoo a handful of times and have never gotten a close look at the jaguar as it always seems to hide in the back under some trees.  We expected the same thing this trip, but as soon as we got to the glass, the jaguar started coming right at us!  I think we all sort of jumped a bit but then watched intently as it paced back and forth for a good 15 minutes in front of us.  Austin kept calling him a Tiger...eh...close enough...

Next was the Orangutan exhibit, one of my favorites.  Again, as soon as we walked up, the mama Orangutan came running over to the glass and sat down right in front of us!  She sat there and stared at us with her big brown eyes for several minutes.  Then, her little baby rolled down the hill (so cute!), came over to the glass, gave his mama a kiss and then began to nurse.  It was simply an amazing thing to witness!

Before we left, we quickly visited the farm animals and saw the goats, chickens and a big black pig...another animal we always seem to miss.

Please excuse the poor picture quality of the photos I'm posting, I somehow lost the battery charger to my Canon Rebel and of course the battery is now dead.  New charger is on the way, thank goodness, I really miss my Rebel!!!

The exact moment Austin spotted the "black duck."

A very satisfied Kookabura

Here comes the jaguar!

Austin loved watching the "Tiger" pace back and forth

"And now you go this way..."

Mama Orangutan

Baby Orangutan

Big black pig...

And here's my own little monkey.

So mad this picture is blurry, another reason I really miss my good camera.