Monday, November 28, 2011

Back to the Brevard Zoo

Happy Monday!

I can't believe how fast Thanksgiving flew by. Our friend, Dion, was here for a visit, and the five days he spent with us are a blur. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, the boys went to the beach on Friday (and the big boys went to a bar that evening), the five of us visited the zoo on Saturday, we watched the Apple Cup, and we ended his visit by dropping him off at the airport before some shopping at Ikea. I must say I am completely exhausted & my house is a mess, but it was a wonderful few days.

Our trip to the Brevard Zoo was definitely a highlight for me. I love our local zoo, so much so that I bought us a season pass in September. We were really lucky this visit because the giraffes were hungry and stationed along the giraffe feeding area, eating and socializing with everyone. They are absolutely beautiful animals and I could have watched them all day.

I have spent the last couple of hours going through the hundreds of photos we took (Mark was just as shutter happy as I was!), and I've posted some of my favorites.

The zoo had a face painting station set up, and Jack wanted to be a lion. Evan, of course, wanted nothing to do with having his face painted and hid behind Mark.


My first sun star. The composition isn't the best, but I am so pleased with myself that I was able to get a pretty good sun star. Terri gave me some great tips when she visited in August & I finally put them to use!

Brothers.

Evan has wanted to kayak along the "African River" for almost a year. He was old enough to go on Saturday, he was all smiles and wouldn't stop talking when it was all over. He loved kayaking and has already asked us when we are going to do it again.

Evan took this picture of Dion while we were watching the giraffes.

Giraffe! I actually squealed when we walked up the ramp to the giraffe observatory. They are so big and beautiful... and friendly!

Look at that tongue!


Stationed throughout the zoo are zoo employees and various snakes. This one was curled up into a knot and perfectly happy. Mark took this great picture.

My three little sea turtles.

Feeding the birds is always a hit, and this time Jack wanted to participate. He was a little unsure of the very friendly birds, but he was fine once Mark held his hand.

I love the face Jack is making! He was not happy while we were waiting for the boys to kayak under the bridge we were standing on.

Our brave kayakers finally arrived! Evan was waving like crazy & apparently yelling "There is Mommy! And Jack! Hi!!" while the guide was trying to point out different animals along the waterfront.

Dion was nice enough to take a photo of the four of us at the end of the day. We are not very good about getting family photos, but this one I love.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Hopefully I will be fully recovered by tomorrow... I have 4 appointments lined up this week, plus Mark's formal awards banquet on Saturday. The holiday season is upon us and I am not ready!

Erin.

2 comments:

Dino said...

I'm surprises at how grumpy I look on the kayak. It was actually a lot of fun! (Teaches me to smile more often when I see a camera lens)

Mark said...

It was really fun having Dion here. The kayaking was a lot of fun and the giraffe heads poking over the trees at us reminded me of a scene from Jurassic park.