The zoo pass got put to use another time last week. We decided on Wednesday to go with another family, and the day was fabulous (cool and not very sunny). Of course, my body gave out after 3 hours of walking. Fortunately, we saw the animals that we didn’t get to see on our first trip. Namely, the primates, birds, and fish/amphibians.

Feast your eyes on the primates.
The gorillas look so stoic. I always wonder if they are thinking, “You people have no idea how smart I really am.”

The chimpanzees were funny. They figured out how to climb onto a ledge up on the high ceilings and most were hanging out up there.

This chimp cracked me up because he looked like a little man, albeit hairy.

Love the butt shot. Reminds me of the Noah’s Arc baby quilt Anut Jenni made for Annie where she made sure to include the pink butts on the baboons.

There was a baby orangutan that was so adorable, but he was too squirrely to get a good shot of him. I was able to get his grouchy dad though.

Love the monkeys with prehensile tails. Mike always wanted one–a prehensile tail, that is.

One can never see enough primates grooming themselves or their companions.

The flamingoes were the kids’ favorite. They kept wanting to go back to look at them. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that they are pink (well, these had more of an orange tinge).

Annie kept reciting to everyone that the pengiuns’ water was 39 deg and that their air temperature was 34 deg.

Other various birds we saw. That last one was a real charmer with only a face a mother could love.

I didn’t take many fish/amphib pics because the area was purposely dim and the camera flash would just reflect off the glass. So I only have this slimy snake to share.

This past weekend Mike went to Louisiana for his annual fishing trip with Tiger. Apparently, Tiger has some connections with a fish touring company and hooked up Mike with an awesome adventure. They fished for 2 days and as a group caught about 60 fish the first day and 30 fish the second day. Mike came home with lots of fillet o’ fish. Wonder what we’ll be eating for the next few weeks?

These are the fish they were catching–speckled belly trout.

Tiger filleting a fish.

The boys also caught a few alligator gar. They have teeth like gators. Ish!

Mike witnessed this water spout which is the ocean’s version of a tornado. Mike says it wasn’t enough for him to cross off his wish of seeing an actual tornado in person though.

Since Mike went on his trip, I thought the girls and I should take a little trip, too. We headed up to MN on Thursday after dropping daddy off at the airport shuttle. The main reason for the trip was to take senior pictures of Other Jim, Sara’s eldest son. The girls were thrilled because they got to spend time with Grandma Minnesota and lots of cousins again. Annie spent the day with Grandma while I did the photo shoot, and Mimi came with me and hung out with Hayley and Matt. They were both delighted. Grandma took Annie to Crazy Days in Excelsior which is basically all the downtown shops having sidewalk sales. A knitted purse and journal was purchased for each girl, and they have been carrying them around ever since. Friday night we met up at the park across the street from the Evans’ home to have a potluck dinner. The kids hardly ate anything because they were too busy playing with each other at the playground. It was a great night and weekend.

I’ll post some of O.J.’s senior pictures when I’ve completed editing.

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