Animals!

No, no, that title is not referring to my children!  Over the past two weeks the boys and I have been heading out to see some real live animals in our area.  First, on Evan's preschool spring break week we headed down to the NC Zoo.  It's about an hour and a half away, but it was worth it.  We convinced our friends Amy and Gary and Abby, Quinn, and Jonas to come along and made our way to Asheboro. 

(Our group of intrepid zoo explorers-Amy and Gary, Our little family, and Abby, Quinn, and Jonas)

Evan really enjoyed seeing all of the animals live.  Ben just enjoys taking in all of the sights and sounds although he did think he had to stay in his stroller far too long!  We went to the Africa portion of the zoo on this visit and saw giraffes, chimps, lions, and more, but Evan's favorite was definitely the baboons.  I think that was because he had just read about them in the "Just So Stories" with Daddy the night before.  However, the gorilla put on quite a show when he walked right in front of us, laid down, and did a little scratching.  Evan and his good buddy Quinn took a little while after the gorilla sighting walking around on their own knuckles doing their own version of gorilla walking.  It was a great day, and I can't wait to head back to see the other animals that we missed!

 (Evan and Ben get ready to explore the zoo.)

 (giraffe rear end)

 (The boys watch the chimps-How cute are they?)

 (elephants)

 

 (Our little gorillas)

Then, last week, our animal adventures continued.  When I was working at The Hill Center in town we would head down to the Duke Lemur Center for a field trip each year.  The kids always had a great time, so I've been waiting until Evan was old enough to take him for a visit.  We were supposed to head down there with our playgroup, but due to a really nasty virus that had been ravaging the playgroup, it was down to us and our friends Sarah and Edward.  But we had a great time anyway! 


The Lemur Center is such a unique experience.  We got to get right up next to the cages and see animals that most people will never get to see up close.  It was especially neat to head into the nocturnal habitat and see all of the tiny nocturnal lemurs scurrying around in the dim light.  Lemurs are almost all endangered, and I don't think the boys realized how precarious the situation of all of these cute little animals was, but they are still learning the importance of caring for and learning about animals.  We even got to meet the actual lemur from the TV show Zooboomafoo which we are of course recording daily for Evan's viewing pleasure.

We wonder what animal adventure we'll be up to next!