Staycation 2012 Part 2 :)

Day 2 of our staycation started with a trip to Natural Bridge Zoo.  We wandered the zoo for about 3 hours and got to see a lot of animals, some of them ate right out of our hands and others even let us pet them.

The Siberian Tigers and especially their cubs were my favorite.  It was so cute to listen to the cubs meow, I am glad we got the chance to hear that.

Elise and Aiden loved finding the decorative animals throughout the zoo so that they could pose for pictures.

I love this guys bright green beak!

This bird seems to be like something out of the Jurassic Period. It has the most stunning blue on its neck and a weird horn on its head!

Aiden and Elise especially liked the petting zoo areas.  This is the first one we came to, with goats, rams, and a hump back cow.

Right beside this area was another Siberian Tiger that was relaxing on it's back during the hottest part of the day.

I wasn't quick enough to catch the chickens in a picture, but Aiden was determined he was fast enough to catch them.  At one point he even stuck his head in the chicken coop to see if he could find eggs.

Amazingly enough these chicks will grow up to be pretty adults like the one pictured below.  It is amazing how much they change as they grow.

FLAMINGOS ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

This is a cute little Fox that is even trained to use a litter box.

Aiden especially liked this big snake!

And this big lizard!!!

Although I do not recommend that everyone stick their fingers into the cage of a bird that is not familiar with them.  I decided to be brave and he let me pet the top of his head and his beak!

It was super hot so we treated the kids to snowcones and took a break in the shade.  Echo really liked getting the chance to spend a little time with her dad and one of her grandmas while she was in town.

Baby camels are so cute. I even got them to eat out of my hand near the girsl so that they got the chance to touch them too!

The camels liked the pellets well enough, but one was determined to get his mouth on the shade for the stroller and take a bite out of it instead.

Aiden and Elise got to get into gigantic turtle shells!

"J" and I took turns pushing the stroller and pulling the wagon.  Poor Emma ended up getting blocked by Izzy's shade in all the pictures I took throughout the day, but she was all smiles for most of the day!

There was only one lonely alligator, though his area was nicely kept, it would have been nice to see him with a friend to keep him company!

"J" stopped to take a break and play "Gimmie 5" with Izzy!

What an awesome African Elephant!  He was huge and so were his farts!  Elephant farts smell really bad.  **Note to self: Do not stand downwind of an elephant.

The giraffe did not like to be touched....

... it did think it was awesome to be offered a whole bag of food to munch from though.

I honestly don't remember what kind of deer these were, they had such soft felt on their antlers and preferred not to have them touched.

OH NOOOO!!!! FIRST ELISE AND NOW AIDEN..... AHHH! THE GIANT SNAKE GOT THEM!!!

The zoo was fun, but we were glad to be able to sit and take a rest.  Aiden got done in the gift shop first and went out to show his Daddy his new treasures.  He decided he needed his very own binoculars to look for deer with and a bouncy ball of course.

These carvings were done on the bench outside the zoo.

It never ceases to amaze me that we can even travel 50 miles from home and see someone we know!  This time we got to see our neighbor Glenda and her adorable grand-daugther Ava! (She is soooo cute Sherry)

After going to the zoo, we came home to prep a wonderful dinner.  I steamed crab, cooked steaks on the grill and served it with potato salad, rosemary bread, and homemade bruchetta.  Once everyone was fat and happy and the kitchen was cleaned up we finished up the night with a campfire and fireworks.  We didn't have graham crackers so we made nilla wafer smores instead.  The kids caught some more fireflies in between fireworks and marshmallows and the adults enjoyed a few drinks and chatting! What a wonderful day from beginning to end!