We went to the zoo!

Today was Bugman's first trip to the zoo!

Bugga had a blast at the zoo. He couldn't get enough of the animals! We walked past the bald eagle cage and it was making some pretty terrible noises because it wanted the fish that just got put in. Noah was a bit taken aback, hence his stance in the first picture. Man, bald eagles are huge, though! Up until now I've never seen one in real life. I was expecting a big bird, but not that big!
And then we saw my buddy, the bear. He was pretty awesome. He just napped away up in the corner behind a rock, and there's lots of turkey vultures in his spot (all those big birds in that middle picture). He was just doin' his thing and two of them were watching him, and one pecked him awake and honestly it kind of made my heart hurt. I wish they'd keep those pesky birds out of there, I don't think the bear cares much for them, either. When he got up and walked to the other side, Noah stepped back, pointed with both hands and pulled a Fonzi "ayyyyyy!" and giggled and ran to me. It was so cute! I can't remember for the life of me what he was looking at in that third picture, though.

He spent lots of quality time with grandpa, too. I think his favorite exhibit was, by far, the reptile house. I can't wait to take him to an even bigger zoo one day, with more animals, bigger reptile houses and maybe even a butterfly house!

He kept running up to grandpa and asking him for "uppy" so he could see the snakes and the frogs and the turtles. There was an employee adding more food and fresh water to one of the turtle tanks and my dad goes, "Look! A wild hand!" and Bugman gasped and goes "Mama a hand!" like it was a real animal or something. I love this kid. He really liked the snakes most of all. He couldn't get enough of them! He ran from tank to tank, standing on his tippy toes and excitedly calling my name to help him see them better and to tell me what they were.

He didn't like the duck/bird house as much. It was a bunch of taxidermied ducks and birds and herrons and the like, and I'm entirely convinced they were stuffed and arranged the way they were to give people nightmares. They were just put into the most awkward positions with these weird, white, blank eyes that would give anyone the chills. Ugh. He looked at them for a bit, then ran from them and told me he didn't like them. It's okay, Bug, I thought they were creepy, too.

We got lots of mama/Bug time, and that was super nice. It was like 96 degrees and I was sweaty and uncomfortable, but he had a blast! He was lovin' all of it. Halfway through the animals I definitely had swollen ankles and was starting to get pretty tired, but I don't think he even noticed the heat. At least, not until his mohawk started to fall down, and then he started complaining that his hair was messed up and he needed more hair gel. He's got great taste in hair styles so I'm not complaining. That middle picture he was smiling for, but got distracted by a bug, and as soon as I took the picture he excitedly lifted his head to show me his bug and headbutted me in the face. Ah, well. Still cute. We had so much fun, but it was so hot and I was pretty uncomfortable so we unfortunately did pass on an excellent learning opportunity. It was weird to walk through a place where it was possible for him to learn so much and just not teach him about everything thoroughly, but honestly he probably enjoyed the break from learning. And hey, there's always next time!

We've had an awesome vacation so far, and it's bittersweet to see it coming to a close. Tomorrow is our last day here, and we'll be home by 7:30-8:00 in the morning on Tuesday to jump back into babysitting and our home routine. It's been nice, but we gotta go back sometime, right?