scenes from a zoo trip

[kate_nepveu]

We did our annual mid-December trip to visit my mom & her husband in Florida, and their Christmas gift to us was a trip to Tampa's zoo, including a behind the scenes tour. The Pip got a little antsy during the more logistical sections, because he is six, but I found it all very interesting. And in more kid-friendly happenings, we:

1) scritched a rhino (such hard skin!);

2) witnessed the rather amazing quantities of bodily waste that an elephant can produce (literally, the sound effect was "splat"; I will spare you the picture);

3) fed a giraffe, well, the kids did anyway: one big leaf of lettuce just sucked in whole;

4) watched elephants play with Christmas trees decorated with produce as an enrichment activity, including one who just picked up an entire tree and carried it around upside-down.

So that was pretty great.

Here's SteelyKid mugging for the camera and the Pip contemplating life while brushing a goat.

(Yes, I completely failed at everything DW again for . . . many weeks, idek. Hi! Sorry!)