Lions and Tigers and Bears (Oh My!)

...and penguins and dolphins and rhinos and gorillas and giraffes and elephants and hippos and alligators...

Today we took our kids to the best zoo in the world, the one Dave and I grew up going to on a regular basis, the one that formed and ruined our view of zoos since we've never been able to find another one that is nearly as awesome. And because we chose to go on a cold, overcast, school day we had the entire place to ourselves!

This tiger was so cool. He paced back and forth growling.

The dolphin show was the best we've ever seen. We were practically the only ones in the audience so they invited us down to view the dolphins in the pool up close and showed us special "husbandry" tricks that they do with them. We laughed about how our insane enthusiasm and clapping and cheering was equivalent to a 500 person audience! (Click on this picture to make it big and check out the dolphin jumping in the background!)

In a special children's interactive exhibit, we could dress up like animals as we viewed the animals!

The VM family and a bear.

PU! The pachyderm house is stinky, as our hilarious nephews demonstrate. (This is how they walked through all the houses!)

My favorite, the giraffes

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This was a very lovable penguin, he kept swimming right up the glass and giving Ella kisses.