The Denver Zoo

My friend, Andrea, had an extra pair of free tickets to the Denver Zoo and asked if Chris, Elianna and I would like to join her and her son, Sam. Naturally, we said yes for several reasons. 1) Free? Zoo? Yes! 2) Andrea is not a believer and is someone I have been trying to reach out to since meeting her at the library 3) Elianna thinks Sam is the best! She loves Sam to death!

As we pulled into the parking lot of the zoo, we realized that those yellow school buses we saw - they were also at the zoo. Apparently all of Denver's 1st grade classes also made their way to the zoo on that very same day. I was anticipating a zoo within the zoo but thankfully, we only ran into the nice (and well managed) 1st graders and chaperones.

The Denver Zoo is the best because they allow you to bring your own food into the zoo. Don't want to eat over-priced over-fried food? Fine, bring your own into the park and eat it. That was pretty cool!

We didn't manage to see everything the zoo had to offer. It is a large zoo with a new elephant exhibit opening up in June. Andrea thinks she may have another set of free tickets, so after it opens, we will head back over there to check it out.

Well, there really isn't much else to say about the zoo - only show lots and lots of animal pictures.  And since they are a bit small, I'll try to let you know what they are (if I even remember what some are).

Mountain goats

Baby (and parents) gosling

White mountain goats

Elianna loves animals so this was so exciting for her!  "Let's go see more animals!"

Our little family

Andrea and Sam

One monkey eating the bugs off the other monkey - eww!

There is a penguin in there somewhere

There he is!

Why you shouldn't climb a tree if chased by a bear

Just scratching his back

Just hanging out

How far down is the drop?

Phew!  A little too far!  Keep holding on!

What should I do next?

Guess I'll go sit and rock in my tree

-End of corny talking-

This monkey looked all innocent

And then he turned around ...

... and came at Sam.  Good thing there was glass!

I don't have a clue what this animal is but he apparently is a vegan.

Some kind of monkey

It's hard to tell but this monkey was black with a white long handled mustache!

The baby monkey made me laugh.  The daddy monkey is on the right side of the picture with his back to the people.  The mommy monkey is laying there looking all tired while the baby monkey jumped all around and in general bugged his mom.  So funny!

But just like my little monkey - even though he bugged her, every once in a while, he stopped and gave her a kiss.  Totally worth it!

Hogs

Monkey

I didn't know flamingos had "pretty" tail feathers

There were 2 flamingos having a fight with each one having a buddy trying to hold the fighting one off.  Did that make sense at all?

Penguins

Parrots

Not sure why but this little guy was hiding out

Cheetah

A peacock hiding in the bushes

Lioness

Lion

For some reason, the zebras were Elianna's favorite.  She still talks about how they are her favorite.  Crazy!  Oh!  And Chris and I decided that zebras are white with black stripes.

This camel looks like it was decapitated.  Weird~~

The standing camel has some kind of mange going on.  Weird~~

Porcupine

From Elianna's Point of View

I always think it interesting to see things from Elianna's point of view so when she asks if she can take pictures with my camera phone, I'm quick to hand it over. This was from last Wednesday on our way home from the bank. She was giggling and laughing over the foot picture and when she turned the camera around to take pictures of herself. Love them (and her)!

Our "Weekend"

Chris works the weekend so his "weekend" is sometime in the middle of the week. Last week, we had a nice family "weekend" on Wednesday.

It all began with Chris making breakfast while Elianna and I snuggled on the couch. She is not normally a snuggler, so when she does, everything stops. Its those little moments.

We then headed to the library for one of her favorite activities of the week - Story Time.

After Story Time, we made a quick run to the bank and on the way home, Elianna asked to take pictures with my camera. That deserves a whole post in itself, but here is a preview picture.  Riveting, huh?  I actually don't know what that is a picture of.  If you figure it out (think strapped in a car seat in Chris' truck), let me know.

Lunch was eaten in the park behind our house, the art of blowing dandelions was mastered and then Elianna headed in to take a nap.

The day didn't end there though. After dinner, she hopped onto her bike to get some practice riding in. She is still struggling with getting the feet motion down. She gets so distracted by what is going on around her, that she stops pedaling. It took us quite awhile to get around to the slide and swing area and by then the bike riding was all over. A little practice and she should get the hang of it.

Chris actually has 2 days in a row off this week - unheard of - and one of those days we are going to the Zoo. It is supposed to warm up (Yay!) so hopefully the animals will be out enjoying the warm day too!

Unexpected Places

Last week we attended the funeral for the sister of my sister's roommate in college. I don't want to simply dismiss the funeral and her joyous life, so please don't get me wrong on this post. Esther was a sweet girl who is beautifully whole in the presence of the God she loved.  This post is simply about unexpected places.

Esther's funeral was at a park here in Denver. We had never been to this particular park so we had no idea that it would house a variety of things to look at while we were there. The family encouraged us all to look around as it was a place Esther loved to visit.

The park had a wagon trail feel to it.  Occasionally there would be a sign that said "Denver City 300 miles 34 more days" or a pile of stuff that the pioneers threw out of their wagon.  Elianna is definitely a miniature me in the OCD department.  It disturbed her greatly that there were piles with overturned chairs and unorganized items.  She would try to strengthen them up or set the chairs upright.  It's seriously hard to explain to an OCD 2 year old that the pile of junk is supposed to be messy like that.

Here are just a few pictures of this unexpected place.

 Elianna is getting into trouble in this picture, but I thought they looked so cute.