Baby boom

The kids and I headed to the zoo yesterday. It's amazing to me that despite having visited the zoo countless times, I can still learn or see something new. Yesterday, there were babies everywhere and not of the human variety.

But first, we had to fuel up. A woman passed by with her grandson and pointed out the 'group' having snacktime. We laughed. We would have preferred 'family' but realize we look more like a daycare to many.This chimpanzee baby seemed pretty happy to be hitching a ride from mom. Catherine and Madelyn are in the window in the back.
This zebra was just born Monday. It stood quite bravely and wobbly, I might add. It was like watching Bambi when he learns to walk. What a neat thing to witness!My babies checking out the giraffe baby...the little guy on the right. He never let mom get too far away from him.We took a break from the animals to try out the zoo's 'human exhibit'. Seth is really getting daring in his old age, especially when a big sister is handy. He's been ready and willing to try all things new lately. Sam still hangs with me except for brief forays into the great big world. While I was snapping Seth's slide adventure, Chloe and Catherine were getting soaked. Of course, Madelyn had to join in. Sam managed to get a little wet too.Finally, we stopped in at a big cats learning center for the kids. They got to make cat noses and we all got to feel the hides of a lion, tiger, mountain lion and snow leopard. Madelyn has an unexplained fascination with snow leopards so touching one's fur was pretty cool for her. We learned that the mountain lions at our zoo were actually rescued after a hunter killed their mother. The lion fur we touched came from a lion who resided at our zoo until he died two years ago of old age. Apparently, lions in captivity can live to be 30 years old, twice the life expectancy of a lion in the wild. See, I learned something new!