Oregon Zoo

Last Tuesday we had a busy day with my friend Jocelyn and her girls Eleanor and Phaedra.

We started at the library to sign up for their summer reading program and get a little concert from Eric Herman. I think Avery saw all the little kids there and immediately put on his 'too cool for school' attitude about the concert but thankfully he ended up getting into it when he realized the guy wasn't as dumb as he thought he'd be.

Then we headed to the zoo! We didn't realize it was $2 Tuesday (their site says once a month they have $4 Tuesday so I'm a little confused, maybe this was an extra special Tuesday?) so of course it was a mad house, thankfully we found someone leaving so parking wasn't bad.

Since it was lunch time we wanted to go have a picnic in the amphitheater first but on the way we went through the sea lion exhibit. This one kept circling around and swimming up in front of Avery and Carson over and over.


Once he did stop and float and just looked at me!


Phaedra likes Emmett. Remember Phaedra from the 18 Month Old party?


This is as close as I got to a group picture, but Carson is blocking Eleanor from view.


There's Eleanor!


Sometimes they bring birds out to train in the amphitheater and while we ate lunch a huge bald eagle was brought out. I had no idea they were so big! Anytime I've seen one they're not next to something that can give me a good scale. Of course, this picture doesn't show how big he is because they were only out for a few seconds and the dial on my camera got bumped so the couple shots I got were all blurry and as I realized what was wrong they left the stage.


With the bald eagle having been out, my boys decided to run around like insane birds. Although this is funny because it looks like sweet Carson just chose to be a chicken.


Well, hello! (I have no idea what this look is about)


Hello Emmett! Poor chin, too bad that evening Emmett stepped up the injury level and broke his arm!


Elephant!


Passing by the amphitheater again later, we stopped for a minute to watch a parrot in training. The trainer would carry him out to a pedestal in the crowd...


...and he'd fly back to the trainer on stage.


Drums in Africa




On to the lion exhibit. I thought I was just getting the boys sticking hands in the statue lion's mouth. Little did I know Avery was also inspecting another facial orifice...


Mrs. Lioness


Mr. Lion


When we got to the Cheetah the kids all jumped in the jeep that looks like it's driving right into the Cheetah enclosure.


Lazy Cheetah


Avery driving the crazy train. I mean jeep.
Or how about
Avery driving us (all crazy).


A different perspective


Hippo


Gazelle


Zebra which Emmett quite liked since he has a zebra book that's a favorite.


Lorikeets are loud and obnoxious! I seriously walked out of there with a headache. We were making our way back to the entrance so we were pretty done at this point anyway so the heat and my being tired probably didn't help, but still. That makes this red one the devil lorikeet.


Lazy tiger. Is the tiger ever not sleeping?


Lazy Emmett. Actually we got to the zoo a little before nap time so his stellar good behavior at the zoo was remarkable and he only fell asleep about 20 minutes before this. We tried to hurry to the car so he could go back to sleep and not be rejuvenated by a little cat nap and end up screaming on the way home. It didn't work, but at least he didn't scream. Avery fell asleep first, followed by Carson and eventually Eleanor. So, oddly enough, only the little ones still in nap age didn't sleep!


Fun times! We didn't see it all, but that's what a membership is for!