Zoo Time

Since there is no zoo in Iowa City, we decided that it would be fun to take Jonah to the zoo with a couple of family and friends while we were in Fresno. It has been years (obviously) since Andrew and I had gone to "Chaffee Zoological Gardens" in Fresno and remembered it as being a pretty bleak place for the animals to live. We were reassured by Andrew's sister and mom that it has been overhauled tremendously and is a cool place to visit. So off we went with the Macs and the Jacksons (sans the other daddies) to take a trip to the zoo.

Jack and Cuz Noah are both zoo members so they were pros at knowing what to see and what to leave out as we made our way through the zoo. Jonah pointed out every new thing that he saw along the way. The boys decided that sea lions were a must, not only because they splash in the water, but also because their pool is surrounded by a super cool cable "fence" that is worth a little attention of its own.
 

We went to see the elephants of course. They are so huge! Jonah was pretty into watching them in all their glory.

Cuz Noah had to grab a picture with the alligator since he wore a shirt in honor of him!

Jonah practiced "walking" with Dad in the shade by the monkey house. Then he decided to just hitch a ride.

There was a field trip there that day so they had an alpaca out for the kids to pet. They let our boys pet him as well as long as they didn't pet by his face. Of course Jonah pushed the limits there, but Andrew made sure he came away with all his fingers.

The funniest/saddest part of the day was in the rain forest exhibit. One of the workers offered to get a parrot down from a tree for the boys to look at up close. Cool, right? Except that the parrot squawked unbelievably loud in Jonah's face and made him cry! He settled down as he watched the parrot play nice with the other two boys but when the parrot came back to him it squawked again! No more parrots.

We ended the day with a few snacks, a group shot,and some sleepy boys to drive home.