Zoo

Last week was Casey's spring break. We had big plans, as usual, none of which came to pass (as usual, such is the way of the Flamingo). Casey wanted to go to MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry), but for the two of us to go it was going to cost $50, so that was out. I wasn't going to pay $50 and not get to see the cool IMAX movie -- last time we tried to take Casey to an IMAX movie about dinosaurs he completely freaked out and YaYa had to take him out. I guess it panicked him that he couldn't tell when a dinosaur was going to come from behind and eat him. You can explain and explain to a 4 year old about how the dinosaurs aren't real (and maybe they never were, if you're a member of the Duggar family; but these are questions I'm okay with waiting to ask God about when I get to heaven, along with why we have to have soooo much snot when we have a cold).

So we went to the zoo instead and took Mace with us (because they don't have enough monkeys there). The zoo here is great -- you can basically set your toddler down and follow him around the entire day without having to worry about him falling into a lion exhibit or pit of vipers (you wouldn't have to worry about that anyway, really, since there are no lions or vipers at Lowry Park Zoo). Though he could fall into a pool of stingrays, it's not deep and and the stingrays have been de-stung.



Casey and Mace really liked the penguins. Me too.

Mace and that guy are having a moment.

These penguins reminded me of Grits, my dog who died in the front room last year and no one noticed until Grandma practically tripped over him. He had gotten so fat and lazy in his later years that he couldn't be bothered to chase scraps when you threw them out in the yard (Joe says it hones a dog's hunting instinct if you make it chase scraps in the yard -- but Joe's eccentric beliefs about how animals think is a whole blog topic in itself). So Grits would watch you throw the scraps off the porch out into the grass and while the other two dogs would scamper out and start sniffing in the grass, Grits would just stand there looking up at you until you let him lick the plate or something because he was so highly evolved, he couldn't be bothered to chase after scraps. The animal handler in the picture up there was trying to get the penguins to jump out into the water to chase after the fish she was throwing out there and they were just sitting there looking up at her, waiting for her to hand 'em over. Look at that rookie penguin in the water -- he must have just arrived the day before.>

Mace followed Casey into the elephant transport crate, but when he got a whiff, he plopped to his bottom and scooted out in a hurry.

You can get up close and personal with the giraffes at Lowry Park. A little too personal if you don't like giraffe breath, but I have boys and they always smell a little funny, so giraffe breath is nothing.



We ended the day in Australia -- that's where the water play area is.



It was a warm-ish day, but not hot and it was overcast -- so that water was a little cold. It took Mace a while to get into the spirit of being half naked at the zoo:



Mom -- you'll be happy to know that we made it through an entire morning at the zoo and I managed not to get kicked out.