Zooish Happenings with Grammy and Pop

On the last day that my parents were here for their visit, we planned a trip to the Oregon zoo. It was the usual unpredictable Oregon weather - one half of the sky looked like rain and the other half looked sunny and bright. We decided to take our chances and go anyway. It was definitely on the chilly side when we began our explorations that day, but as you can see in the above photo, my two little munchkins are oblivious to the cold and dampness (being true Oregonians and all!)

This is Pop's excited face. Seriously, it is. It's the same as his angry face and his happy face. I promise you, he was having a good time. He's just terrible when it comes to taking pictures. . .

David raced headlong through most of the zoo. His favorite sightings? Rocks, dirt, grass, and mud. We could have saved ourselves some money and taken that kid on a free nature hike for the same thrills. Note how David runs with his head down. His head actually wobbles around when he runs, earning him the nickname "Bobblehead" and "Chickenneck." (ha ha, we're saving money to pay his therapist some day!)

Michael's favorite moment at the zoo was experiencing pickles for the first time at the Zoo food court. He loves them! i'm not sure he was quite as happy that we lost his bottle at the zoo, but that's another story.

We got to see the baby elephant for the first time. Samudra was actually born just a few days before Michael - I remember all the hype in the news while i was in the hospital delivering Michael. Gabi loved the elephants, and the penguins, and the monkeys, and the giraffes, and pretty much all the animals she saw.

Aww, a sweet moment with Pop. Too bad Pop looks like he just ate a pickle himself. :)

We were able to go into the Lorikeet house and get incredibly close to the brightly-colored birds. Chris bought some nectar to feed the birds, and amazingly enough, my normally timid daughter was in birdy heaven. I wonder if the fact that the birds are green with rainbow accents had anything to do with it. . .

As soon as we entered the Lorikeet House, one of the friendly birds landed right on Mom's arm, much to her surprise.

I was only inches away from this lorikeet when I took his picture with my new camera.

Even David got in on the feeding action. He saw how much the bird loved the nectar and decided to try some for himself. Before we could stop him, he had drunk some of the nectar and gotten quite a bit of it on his hands and face. Poor David was now a target for hungry birds, and one of the eager lorikeets bit his finger, trying to get at the nectar.

Grammy's girl. . .

And of course we had to get a final shot in front of the cheesy partying bears in front of the gift shop. Big smiles everyone!