Since the forecast was for a nice day in the 60s today, we decided to take a trip up to the Birmingham zoo today. Glad we did because we got to check out the new giraffe encounter! For a few dollars, the kids got to feed the giraffes some snacks. Savannah did great right from the start -- maybe because of all the practice she has had feeding Grammy's cows! You'll notice she is wearing a backpack. She brought her "zoo cup" - which is a cup that we got at the zoo in Gulf Shores that she now uses to collect pretty feathers in. Mom & Dad did some proactive feather hunting (i.e., sneaking behind the ropes that you are supposed to stay behind) to grab pretty feathers that the birds had lost). She also had a notebook and pen with her, and she was drawing pictures of animals and checking them off as we saw them.
Gage, who has also had a lot of practice feeding cows, had a tougher time, but it was all good and funny anyway. Every time the giraffe would stick his tongue out Gage would chicken out and drop the treat. But, after a few tries, he finally got the giraffe to take it from him.
I think it's safe to say that they loved this :-)
Now, the zoo was pretty empty today, and so were the animal exhibits, unfortunately!! There were a lot of animals off exhibit, and the zoo's offerings were rather slim! We could not feed the lorikeets (rainbow birds), the snack bar was closed (much to Adam's disappointment), and a lot of things were closed up. BUT...we did get to feed the flamingos again, which we love! We call them the "nibblers" because they just keep pecking at your hand gently until they get a little nugget of flamingo food. Savannah scored some pink feathers, too! And...whenever I see flamingos, I am always reminded of when Savannah used to tell me that "flamingos poop out mangoes" - I love that :-)
