Hunter's first trip to the zoo...

...was a total success! He loved all of the animals and enjoyed feeding many of them and was watching intently as the animals made their noises and interacted with one another...I think that Mamma and Dadda had as much fun as he did, though! We had forgotten how awesome it was to be up close and personal with all of the wonderful animals and how beautiful they are! We will definitely be returning again...Hunter has talked about the zoo and acted like a monkey ever since we came home...that is, after his 4 1/2 hour nap ~ I think that the zoo tired him out just a bit!!! :) We had planned to make our zoo trip on Monday, but since they were predicting that the temperature would be 100 degrees, we decided to go this morning before the heat wave hit again...so glad we did! The perfect way to start a wonderful weekend! We hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July ~ we look forward to hanging out with family and friends at Scott's house ~ Hunter is already talking about "Cott's poo" (Scott's pool) :)

LOVED the giraffes :)

Who could resist this face??? :)

Watching the monkeys swinging from rope to rope...too funny!

Eating animals crackers on the way to the zoo....pictures got a little out of order!!

Hunter loved all of of the deer...I wonder where he learned about those?? :)

Camels looking for food

Hunter was running all around trying to make friends with as many animals as possible...

Peeking in to see what kinds of animals he can find!

...and feeding his new friends a treat!

Getting a little head rub from one of the zookeepers :)

Watching the penguins eat their trout treats!

Treat time for the penguins...

and treat time for Hunter :)

a new penguin friend

Hunter loved the monkeys that were everywhere and their funny noises that they made...we heard them before we even got out of our car!!

The bat cave...we didn't stay in there long! It was feeding time and it gave us all the creeps seeing them flying all around and freaking out over their rotten fruit...EEK!

The bears wrestling each other...Hunter said they were playing "football" - pretty funny!

Face to face with a bengal tiger...thank goodness for the glass in between us! :)

Saying "cheese" for the camera

The orangatang sitting on the edge of the water was so funny - he kept using his hand as a cup and scooping up water and sipping it...it was so cute!

We sat and watched the mommy and baby monkey together for quite a while...she was so sweet...carrying the baby around on her back and picking it up and playing with him...amazing to watch how "humanlike" their role is as a mommy!

Getting a little drink :)

Hunter loved watching the huge goldfish in one of the ponds...

Looking at the huge turtles...

Hunter didn't exactly want to stop for a picture...he wanted to see more animals!

Hunter recognized the zebras right away and started yelling "Zebra, zebra!"

Mommy and baby giraffe was so beautiful...