Zippity-ZOO-Daw...Zippity Day!

Saturday morning came zipping up on us pretty quick. I was up with my boss and his technician friend working on the phone system in my house until 2 AM. The phone system still isn't fixed- but that's a whole OTHER story...Today- I'm going to share with you about our zoo visit on Saturday.

Gabe was skippity-doo-dawing all day Friday in anticipation of his girlyfriend Catherine (Cate) spending the day with us at the zoo. The whole zoo thing came to pass when Sam asked me if I would take him to the zoo....and one thing leads to another- and soon we have a date picked out and a whole van load of kids   (which isn't hard to do when you have 4 of your own!) and we were headed south to the NC state zoo.

We started in Africa- because as Jakey said, "Oh!? Africa??!!? I've never been to Africa before!" and with that realization....our safari began. I'm still not so sure that Jake really understood that we had not time warped to another location...because he kept making statements such as, "The wind is kinda chilly in Africa!" (grin) and "they have Sprite in Africa?? WOW!"  It became to tedious to explain...so I didn't.

Elephant. For those of you who missed the National Geographics latest documentary, "Horton Hears A Hoo" :)

The giraffes were fun. We wanted to do the feeding deck- but the giraffes were on their own safari...and missed their lunch feeding. Oh well.

Monkey holding acorns

Through the glass (hence the reflection). He's pretty serious.

I must tell you, "Africa" has some beautiful flowers! Our zoo has wonderful landscaping, exotic plants and flowers and they showcase them so beautifully. I really enjoyed the plants as much as the animals.

What an egg!

Mork & Mindy...I mean, Gabe and Cate

Russian Sage and bee. One of my favorite plants.

Sculture of an African vulture along the elephant loop

Gabe & Catherine....

Catherine is teaching Gabe to "stop and smell the roses" He's so going to kill me for posting this picture!

After our stint in Africa- we took the tram to North America. (which really confused Jake, cuz he thought Africa was FAR, FAR away!) North America was (to be honest) a dud- the polar bear was asleep, the eagles were put up, the foxes were in the den and the bears were sleeping too!

The harbor seals were quite active

I love watching the seals swim and play....very peaceful.

Taking break front to back: Jake, Gabe, Cate, Sarah, Sam & Rebekah

My four

Catherine and Gabe on their way to the tram

The sun started to go down behind the trees as we were leaving the zoo.

We had a long, wonderful day with plenty of sunshine, laughs and fun. I so enjoyed getting to know Cate better and obliging Sam's request to visit the zoo.

Shine all your light!

Cass