Trip to the Zoo

The whole gang! Left to Right: Kaden, Whitney, Ashlyn, Gavin, Porter and Colton.

The kids have been out of school this week for spring break and up to yesterday it had been a pretty lame one for them. First Ashlyn had some kind of stomach virus and then Whitney came down with it. Thankfully we were finally all healthy and able to make a trip to the Montgomery Zoo with the cute Patterson Family. They had the bad luck to move in across the street from us and now they cannot escape us. Kaden and Gavin are best buds. Porter and Ashlyn are just a few days apart in age. I always think of them as a matched set. They have the same coloring and both are very strong willed. But they also represent extreme ends of the spectrum on different personality traits. For example Porter is extremely friendly while Ashlyn is extremely unfriendly. Porter has mega high energy while Ashlyn is mega low energy. Emilie and I like to say that if we could somehow combine the two we would have a happy medium. =)

The kids really got a kick out of the chimpanzee who spent a long time scratching and displaying his very unattractive bum hole for everyone. The white Bengal tigers were also a hit. They really wanted to spend more time watching the male and female tiger "wrestle". The male tiger was feeling frisky but the female tiger was not feeling it, if you get my meaning. We all agreed that the anteater must be in heaven here in Alabama with the all-you-can-eat smorgasbord the fire ants provide. My least favorite animal was the Maned Wolf, purely for its noxious stench. I always feel bad for the cheetahs at this zoo because they have a lovely and tempting view of the giant field of grazing herbivores like zebras and antelope directly adjacent to them. They are usually pacing back and forth along a well worn path between the two habitats.

Ashlyn and Gavin waiting to ride the train.

Whitney sittin' pretty.

The kids were really excited to see this giant bamboo. There are patches of much smaller bamboo growing wild here on Rucker and they love to play with bamboo sticks. Mostly they like to use them as weapons but find other creative uses for them too.

Whitney enjoying the awesome playground equipment.