where the wild things are

We took a trip to Wildlife World Zoo over the weekend. The weather was perfect, the animals were active, and the kids were enthralled.

I have no clue what this bird was, but it walked right in front of us and started kicking the leaves out of the path... so Britt hurried to join in.

Peacocks and ducks and tons of other birds roam free about the zoo. It's pretty fun to have to wait for a duck to cross your path before you can move on.

Marnie wanted to pet the monkeys so bad. She kept luring them closer with her call of, "oo! oo! ah! ah! ah!"

His first "surprise from above." haha... how mean am I, taking a picture before cleaning it off? In my defense, I already had the camera in my hand, and another 5 seconds with bird poo on his arm wasn't going to kill him.

This was one of Britt's favorite exibits: the vampire bats. He's been obsessed with bats for a few years. He could have stood there all day and watched those little guys. He was even more excited about the fruit bat exibit (which was too dark to photograph well). One flew right in front of his face. He said it was even better than when a Harley Davidson passed us on the way to the zoo and he saw a biker chick with a bat tattooed across her back...and that's hard to top!

This funny young white tiger came right over and made himself comfortable. It was almost as if he said, "hey guys... what's goin on?" He only got to relax for a few minutes, then it was back to wrestling with his brother. I know just how their mother feels...

While watching the tigers, Marnie signed 'cat' and meowed for 10 minutes straight.

Britt found this opening in the hedge where we could peek at the adult white tigers.

Justin and Britt got to feed the Lory parrots. It was hard to get a good picture of them... I'm guessing someone told them that cameras are delicious. Britt had a good time letting them eat right out of his hand.

Britt was thrilled at the idea of feeding a real giraffe...

...until its tongue touched his hand and he was repulsed. His exact words were, "its tongue was so black and lonn {long} and it had WAY more slobber than Abbi." Anyone else surprised that an animal as large as a giraffe would have more slobber than this one?

After a few minutes, this fella cheered Britt up... Look closely at the top of the picture. Were it not for the two layers of chain-link fence separating them, Britt could have high-fived him.

Justin and Britt took the log ride that went around an island full of spider monkeys, alongside an aquarium full of sharks and other sea life, through a tunnel where fish swim around and above your head, and finally down a 3-story drop. This picture says it all...

And they didn't even get soaked! :)