4th of July Part 2 - Cheyenne Mtn Zoo

Our second day in Colorado Springs we headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It is literally tucked up in the mountains. I will admit, I am a total zoo lover. Well, animal lover. And zoos just happen to provide lots of animals in one place. :) Of course I wanted to go for Pierscen's sake as he is old enough to appreciate the animals, but I mostly go for me. :)
 

One of the things the zoo is most famous for is that you get to feed the giraffes! How fun is that?

We had a lot of competition with the other kids, (it would have been better if we had just walked to the other side where you see the giraffes in the picture above) but we still managed to get one to take a piece.

P thought it was pretty awesome. Sorry I put my head in the way so you can't see his reaction. It wasn't a big grin or anything, just so you know, but he thought it was cool and kept reaching for another piece of lettuce to try again.

One of the things I loved the most was seeing Pierscen actually react to seeing some of these animals. Granted, last time I took him to a zoo he was 6 months old and he slept through a lot of it, so it's not much of a comparison, but I loved seeing him sit forward in the stroller, point at things, search for animals, and try and mimic their movement and sounds.

One of P's favorite animals to mimic is the elephant. But beyond a book that makes the sound of an elephant at a few elephant toys at home, I don't think he really knew what one was. So it was fun for him to be able to see one of those massive animals in person.

Of course the elephants were cool, but he was most interested in the waterfall. Daddy's boy for sure. If there is running water, that means there may be fish, or the opportunity to through rocks. Or if nothing else, waterfalls are just plain cool.

The view was incredible. Sorry about the chain link. Kind of ruins the picture, but you at least get the idea. I loved that this zoo really was tucked up high and away from the city. It was awesome!

The picture above and below aren't very good, but it was the only one I got proving that we were with family!

This peacock had a baby! That was so cool! My first thought was actually wondering if that was really a peacock chick or if she had adopted a chicken or something. I looked it up later and sure enough, they are pretty plain when they are born. I have never seen a baby peacock before.

This little pony came trotting along and P loved getting to pet it. Ryan even gave it a little pat too. I was very proud of him. He is not a horse lover, so this was good progress. ;)

As I have mentioned before, Pierscen loves his brown bear stuffed animal and his favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See? So he loved seeing the grizzlies. And the fish.

My mother-in-law loves moose, so of course we had to snap a picture.

We stopped by a little kid area where they have some farm animals you can pet (like chickens) and these amazing trick goats. They can climb!

They also had a little splash pad area that the kids were thrilled to run through. I could not get a decent picture of P with his eyes open, but he loved it none the less.

I think P's favorite area was toward the end of our visit - and ironically, it wasn't the fancy animals he loved. He was the chickens and the peacocks. The peacocks were actually making quite a bit of noise and P kept trying to mimic them. He was really good at it too!

He also thought the hippos were pretty cool. When we first approached the hippo area, the hippos were underwater. After a few minutes, they came up for air and made that "puft" sound as they blew the water out of their nostrils. P immediately tried to mimic it by blowing air out of his own mouth. He didn't miss a beat! We were laughing pretty hard because he is just so clever. I love it!

P also loved the monkeys, as I think everyone does. Within a few minutes he was saying "mon-key! mon-key!" and was also making the monkey noises. So cute.

We had to stop by the hippos again so he could actually see one get out of the water. That one waddling away looked like it was really struggling... like it was feeling every single one of it's thousands of pounds. Poor thing. It made it inside and made quite a different sound than the "puft" of air coming out of the water... It was air... but out of the opposite end. Haha. I am glad P didn't decide to mimic that sound. ;)

We loved this zoo. It was a little pricey to get in, but totally worth it. We were also lucky because we ended up with some great cloud cover and even a bit of rain. It was perfect!

I would definitely like to go back again. Ryan doesn't love zoos as much as I do, but he even made the comment that seeing the trick-doing goats was worth the cost. It was a really awesome way to spend the day made even better by being with family.

We spent the evening at Jodi and Ryan's, eating, enjoying time with family and of course, more shed building.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I got of the event. I should have taken a lot more. Apparently Jodi's father-in-law has had the stuff for this shed for two years, but life has been too busy to get it done. With the combination of my Ryan, Jodi's Ryan, Kyle (Jodi's brother-in-law) and Mark (father-in-law) they made some really great progress!

They also had a beautifully little momma dove that built her nest right there close to their house. She was a brave little thing too. She would stay on those eggs until the very last second.

Don't worry. I didn't touch anything. I asked them recently if the babies had arrived yet, and I guess they had a big storm that blew the nest out. Sad, sad day. Sorry momma dove!

Jodi had to work Friday night, so when she got home Saturday morning, we talked for a while until she had to crash (which I am impressed she stayed up at all! Graveyards are a beast.) We headed home around 10 am. I would have loved to have stayed an extra day, but Ryan wanted to be back for his lesson on Sunday. (It's easier for me as a primary teacher to ditch my lesson. As the Young Men's President, Ryan is a lot more involved.) 

This little bug was exhausted, but he had a great time. It is really hard to be so far away from family, but I am really grateful that we all get along so well. I hope that even as the years go on, that we as siblings (on both sides) can continue to put forth the effort to keep our kids close. It is a blessing to have cousins that you love and can look forward to spending time with. Family is everything! It was such a great way to celebrate our freedom as a nation and our joy as a family. Love you guys!