All the Animals

WARNING: Long post alert! This post has several pictures, and too much text, but there is a FABULOUS video at the very end. You can just skip to the end if you want, but the pics are pretty cute.

Since our ward temple trip to the Memphis Temple was on Saturday (July 17), we decided to go up to the Memphis Zoo the day before and stay the night in a hotel. It turned out to be just as hot as any other summer day in the south, but little did we know what fun the zoo held in store!  I know this post is long and lots of pictures – but read through to the end – I uploaded the most awesome video. You’ll be glad you watched it!

The Water Hole

The Memphis Zoo is doing something right – they have a wading pool at the front of the zoo, and then another splash pool outside the grizzly bear exhibit. We let the kids get downright soaked (Joseline ended up face down in the water at one point – but that’s another story). Then we let the kids walk around the zoo sopping wet. Unfortunately I didn’t know about the water, so I dressed Vincente in jeans. If I had known I would have put him in gym shorts. I’m sure the kid was a little chaffed at the end of the day (if you know what I mean).

Pandas

Pretty much the first thing we saw was the panda bears. The zoo has two cute little pandas. They were both inside, since it was so hot. Most of the animals were hanging out inside their houses (or in their water holes if they had them). It is just way too hot in the muggy south to do much but lounge around in the shade. The picture above is Vincente gently tapping on the glass trying to get this panda to wake up. The video is of the other panda, who was happily munching away on his bamboo. Basically what pandas do best – eat and sleep.

And their poop looks like shredded bamboo,

clumped into light green clusters,

just in case you wanted to know.

I included this picture of a sign because it  has some Chinese characters. I was hoping Russ might read this post and translate it in the comments for us. Just for practice.

 

Grizzy Bear

Vincente holding hands with a grizzly bear. Okay, so really the bear is on the other side of the glass, and he is eating some cantaloupe. Yum yum. We watched the bear feeding for a while. It was pretty neat. At the end they gave the bears blocks of ice with blueberries and some other fruit frozen inside. It was hilarious to watch them lick at the ice in the water.

Sea Lion Show

The next few pictures are from the sea lion show. It was as good as SeaWorld at half the price! (okay, and minus Shamu. We still want to take Vince to SeaWorld to see an orca whale in person. Since we’re never going on a boat again. Ever.)

 

 

Do they look exhausted? Because they are. Don’t worry – they’re not sweating, they’re just wet from the “geysers” at the grizzly exhibit.  Well, they’re probably sweating, too. And they were starving. We bribed them to watch the sea lion show with the promise of food after the show :)

Polar Bear Show

Vincente, Karyn, and Joseline watching the polar bear dive. The kids were fascinated when the polar bear would swim by them. It was pretty magnificent. The polar bear looks beautiful under water.

Misc Zoo Pictures 

Vincente and Karyn holding hands.

And Karyn wearing my sunglasses.

Cute kids.

Checking out the baby giraffe. That’s right – a baby. This baby giraffe is about 6 months old and is over six feet tall! Pretty intense. A full grown male giraffe is something like 16-18 feet tall. Can you imagine birthing a baby giraffe? Talk about long labor. Har har har.

And no zoo trip would be complete without a ride on the carousel. The kids were looking forward to this ride ever since we went to see the pandas (which was the first thing we saw!).

 

In an effort to make this post digestible, I have only included a tiny fraction of the photos I took at the zoo. Once I get my online photo album back up and running I will post the rest for your viewing pleasure.

Monkey in the Treetop

And now... what you’ve all been waiting for... (it’s about 2 minutes long, but I cut that down from a 3 minute video I took. And I added some cute music, so it’s not terribly boring! :) )