Zoo trip ✽ We fed the birds...

We celebrated my birthday last month early since Daddy was going to out of town and we were going to have company. (My best friend's sister came to stay with us for a while :).) Daddy and I went antiquing. It's not really his thing, but he's a sweet Daddy who puts up with it anyway, haha ;). 

I enjoy seeing all the handmade stuff and all the old items. We ran into a typewriter at one point, and I was like, huh, neat, and walked away... then we found another one, and I don't know, it was different somehow, and I was going to reach out and touch it, and then OF COURSE, this one had a sign on it that said "no touching, I am old and my keys are delicate", hahaha, and I was like, seriously?! I had NO inclination to touch the one I could have... haha! There was a piano there that had been turned into a desk, and we thought that that was neat :)!

Then on my birthday we took our friend to the zoo :).

This bear. I love this bear... haha :). I don't remember it's name; I know the other bear is named Sunshine as an ironic way to try bringing a bit of happiness to his personality in some way (I've heard that he's a pretty no-nonsense, teddy, haha), but I can never remember what this one was named... but he plays all. the. time., and so cute, haha :). There was one time we were there and he actually dragged grouchy Sunshine into the water, and that was hilarious, haha. He loves water! Last time he was washing his face with a rag, this time he was taking a bath and trying to get his snack out of the puzzle-feeder-thing :). 

Noah looks like that almost every time he gets in that wrap, haha :).

  

We fed the birds while we were there, which was something that many of the little ones didn't remember, and Johanna had never done. It was... entertaining. Hahaha!

Mama had to stand with the stroller/purses/cameras/etc, so she handed me some money and told me to go ahead and take everybody in. It took forever to get everybody through the first set of doors... and then we had to get through the second set of doors, and as they are passing through that, birds are already attacking them, and they were just stopping and nobody could move, lol. I finally pushed everybody out, and got five birds on me as soon as I stepped out.

I was trying to give my nectar cup to Emmi when I heard a piercing shriek, and Josiah and Peter are screaming and dodging and terrified at the birds around them. And they wouldn't let Tori get them out, and they wouldnt follow me, and they were screaming the whole time that we were rushing them out to Mama, and this happened to at least two cups;

Haha :).

And here would be the after effects of Peter's ordeal. He's even beautiful when he's pouty, sweaty and crying because a bird used his hair as a toilet... hahaha! Poor child.

Once Mama had the boys, I went back in to find Johanna through the roof excited and begging if we could do it again... hahaha! All the nectar was gone, and everybody had barely been able to take it in through the commotion, so Mama agreed. I asked for more nectar cups, and pep talked everybody so they would get through the doors quickly, haha. Everybody who was going in had a nectar cup... we walked in, and Emmi, who had begged to go through again with us, started yelling at me to take her nectar cup, hahaha!

I'm just going to say, it is hard to simultaneously take pictures and keep birds off of five peoples heads while 3-6 birds are constantly climbing on you. Very hard.

This one made Johanna's day, because it wouldn't leave her, haha!

This one was cute :). It was an adventure for sure, haha :).

The giraffes are some of my favorites- and the koala bears, and they have a baby one right now, but it was asleep behind it's Mama and we couldn't see it very well :(.

Baby flamingos :D!!!! They are toooooo cute (as long as you don't think about their wild cousins... seriously, if you've never watched "Crimson Wing", do yourself a favor and DON'T DO IT, because flamingos are beautiful and the babies are adorable, but spoiler alert, THE WILD IS A TERRIBLE PLACE FOR THE HEALTH OF THESE BIRDS, and I think of that every time I see them now, and it's so sad.) But anyway. There was one year my Dad got pictures of one of their chicks in every stage from egg to adulthood, and it was fun to see it grow up :). But they had two this time, and I love their little fuzzy faces :).

After the bird house, we only had the fish house left... so we went in. And it started raining, So we were going to wait it out. But eventually the zoo was closing in ten minutes and we had to just run for it. And it was POURING, so hard, haha! Tori had suspected it was going to rain and brought her umbrella, but the rest of us had been like "Naw, it doesn't look like it, nope, we'll be fine", so we had one umbrella for all 11 of us, haha. Tori shared with Mama so that Noah wouldn't get wet, and the rest of us just ran for it, and Josiah was wailing, haha! I couldn't see, because the rain was all over my glasses, and EVERYBODY was either screaming or laughing, and oh my, haha. It was a memory maker for sure, haha :). The ride home was spent with some people crying that they were wet and others saying that that was the most fun they've ever had at the zoo, haha :).