Goin' to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo....

The weather outside is absolutely delightful these days, so we thought we should take advantage of our beautiful afternoons before Hell arrives back in town.  Today ended up being the perfect day to load up and drive out to the Wildlife World Zoo.  It was always my favorite zoo growing up, but I can't even remember the last time I was there.  My mom was alive for sure, so that means it was at least 17+ years ago...and I'm pretty sure another 5-10 years on top of that would be a bit more accurate.  Mike's last visit was about the same time-ish. 

I told Richelle where we were going, and she asked if we would take Jake.  When I called her back to tell her when we'd be by to grab Jake, she said Carsen wanted to come with us too.  I was so glad both boys wanted to spend the afternoon with us!  Sadly, I know the truth is they wanted to spend the time at the zoo with Blip, but I pretend like it's me they still love most.  No matter who they really wanted to be with, we had an amazing afternoon together.  There's a huge part of me that longs for a big family, so going places with Richelle's boys (and now my own boy) makes me wish they were mine...just a little bit.  It's always fun when they tag along...they are so sweet.  Especially to my Blip.

Mike was worried we wouldn't have enough time before they closed at 6pm to make it worth the money and the time, but I reassured him we had the perfect amount of time.  He worked off duty last night, so I let him sleep until he woke up.  I usually wake him when Blip wakes from his morning nap, but he went down late, so he was later waking too.  We didn't get there until about 3:30pm, so that gave us about 2.5 hours before the zoo closed.  When we bought our tickets, the lady at the booth told us the Aquarium did not close until 9pm, so if we started with the zoo side, we'd have plenty of time for both.  She was exactly right.  We were done with everything we wanted to see at 5:55pm...as they were trying to usher people out.  We walked over to the aquarium side and meandered through all four buildings before we left.

Blip was interested in quite a few of the animals, but he did have an "exciting" first today.  His first scare.  I'm tellin' you...this kid does not do things like "normal" kids.  He doesn't cry when we leave the room.  He doesn't cry when he's startled.  He rarely (if ever) cries when he falls or gets "hurt" (probably because we usually start clapping and say "YAY!!!"...parents of the year, yes we are!  Maybe we should be more consoling? I don't want a crybaby, though.)  

Today we were standing watching some of the birds they have all over the zoo.  Blip, of course, loves the movie Rio, so he loved all the bright colored, large birds.  Carsen, Jake, and Mike were "talking" to the birds...and they were kinda talking back.  All of a sudden one of the birds SCREAMED something.  Twice.  Poor Blip.  He was done.  Maybe he wasn't even scared.  Maybe his feelings were hurt..??  It was the first time we'd witnessed Blip cry over something like that.  His little lip was pathetic.  We laughed about it, but felt bad that he was actually upset.

He got over it, so we moved on to the next thing...tigers.  He didn't really care about those.  He did like the giraffes, the fish, most of the birds, Lemurs (King Julian), the porcupines were interesting...If it moved- he liked it.  If it sat still- he couldn't have cared less.  Pretty much how must of us felt, I think.

We did get to witness a zebra fight.  And I'm not joking.  Blood and a hole ripped in a neck and everything.  At first we thought all the zebras were goofing around...running around, playing, etc.  Then two of the zebras broke off...and took the baby zebra (born January 30th, 2013) with them.  They honestly stood protecting the baby...completely guarding the baby from the others.  The other three zebras (2 on 1) continued their shenanigans.  But then one zebra was getting ganged up on by the other two...so the one zebra started kicking the other two with his hind legs.  Hard enough we could hear the strikes.  The other two were head butting and ramming the one zebra...until he finally turned and there was a hole in his neck!!  And one of the aggressors was ripping the flesh with his teeth!!  It was incredible...and kinda strange, but they are wild animals, so not that hard to believe.

I asked Carsen if he wanted to stay or go.  He said he wanted to stay, which seemed fine...since I wanted to watch too.  Mike finally made us leave...which was fine too...because the entire time I was trying to decide if it was okay for him to watch.  In the end, I decided if he can play Call of Duty (or whatever it's called), he can watch nature happen...at the zoo.  With blood.  Sounds totally rational.

Mike's reason for leaving the crime scene was actually pretty comical.  There were some pretty shocked zoo visitors that could not believe the zebras were fighting.  Um...they are wild animals.  They don't have the option of calling a mediator to work out their differences. Some of the people were actually yelling at the zebras to "Stop fighting!"  Really?  One idiot yelled something about calling the police.  Okay...Really!?  Then she changed her mind and wanted the "Animal Police".  That's when I knew it was time to go.  These are the idiots that are sitting on a jury panel, voting, etc.

Anyway...as we were leaving the zoo, Carsen said he had the best day.  Or an awesome afternoon.  Something super happy and positive.  We really did have a great time.  I love that zoo...and how close to the animals you are. I hope we take Blip back all the time (while the weather is nice, you know) as he grows and is more and more interested in the animals.  I love that Richelle's boys love to spend time with us...and I love that Mike loves my boys as much as I do.