The Zoo!!

Earlier this year Tara had told me that she hadn't been to the zoo since she was a child.  We had to fix that!  So she decided to take her little sisters with us for a girl's day.  We got up early Sunday morning and headed down.  It was supposed to be really hot so we decided to go a little earlier to escape the heat as much as we could.
I love these skunk-looking monkeys.

This vulture was in the dinosaur exhibit.

Then there's the elephants, one of my very favorite animals!  If I could, I would have an elephant.  The one on the left is Dari, she's the matriarch of the three.  She is the oldest elephant in captivity in North America at 51 years old.  The one on the right is Christie, she is the mom to the baby in the middle.  And the baby is Zuri.  She was the first African Elephant born at Hogle Zoo in 2009.  She is so cute!!

We stood there and watched these guys for a good amount of time.  I could have stayed there all day.  The mom and the baby were being so cute.

We moved on through the zoo and go to the giraffes.  These are another of my favorites.

We went over to the big cats.  It was so hot out that they had misters all over misting the cats area to keep it cool.

Then we walked into the reptile house, you never forget the smell of that place!

 When we got to the apes and orangutans, there was this CA.RAZY lady doing sign language to the ape that was sitting underneath his playhouse telling him to "come here".

We walked back over to the elephants.  They were getting ready to do a show.  Zuri was the star, showing off her tricks.  Can I please, pretty please have one?!

 After it was over, in came momma and grandma for a snack.

 It was blazing hot outside so we decided to head home.  We were hungry and decided to stop at Trolley Square to eat at The Spaghetti Factory, I love that place!  We sat in the trolley and Tara's sisters thought it was pretty cool.  We headed home with full bellies.
I love going to the zoo and I'm so glad that I got to go with Tara and her sisters.  It was such a fun day!