A little overshadowed, but not forgotten... THE ZOO!

Until we got distracted with more important posts, this post was going to be our next one.

We really wanted to brag about our Houston ZOO!

About a week prior to Noah being born, we decided to take a trip there.

From what we saw of the zoo (which was only about 15% of the zoo) this is one of the coolest zoos we've ever been to.
(up there with the Cleveland Zoo, the North Carolina Zoo, and the Prague Zoo)

Due to the heat, the first place we decided to visit was the indoor "rainforest" section of the zoo.

They had a ton of fish that were very exotic. While there we saw all of the fishes from Finding Nemo (clown fish, dory fish (I don't know their names), blow fish, sharks, etc.) In this tank (among others) there were Piranha.

It was interesting because the top of it was open (no glass) and there was a sign that said "Please don't put hands or fingers in the tank. These fish are known to bite."

Another cool thing in the rainforest area were the otters.

Usually when you see otters in a zoo you will see them swimming around in a pool. This time we got the chance to see them taking a nap together. I like to think that this is a Mom and her kid snuggling.

One of the things that Gabs liked the most about this trip to the Zoo was that we actually let her get out of the stroller and lead us wherever she wanted to go.

When we first took her out though, she gave us this look that was like "really, I get to do whatever I want?! Yay!"

As soon as she got out of the stroller she went running over to this huge fish.

We had no idea that she was so fond of fishies.

If any of you have ever been to a park with Gabs you will know that she has kind of a love/hate relationship with heights, tunnels, and new things... she hates them at first, but once she gets used to them, she tends to love them.

One of the other cool things about the rainforest area is that they have a fun tunnel to go through. You actually go right under the Piranhas.

Gabbie was all game going into the tunnel, but once she got there, whether out of fear, or out of excitement I'm not sure, she didn't want to move further.

I had to scoot her along as best I could while not getting claustrophobic myself. (This thing was obviously made for kids.)

I love this picture, because it shows a side of Gabbie that is rarely seen. This is her... I'm hot, and tired, but I can't stop having fun... look.

Their exibits had so many different varieties of animals than we were used to.

I think this picture is one of a toucan... I'm not sure though.

Another thing that we really like about the Houston Zoo is how many benches they have for you to just stop and sit down on. Almost every exhibit has a place where you can just sit and look at the animals.

There is also a ton of Shade... both man-made and natural.

One of Gabbie's favorite parts of our Zoo back in Utah was the wild cat area. She loved the Siberian tigers. We didn't get far enough into the Zoo to see if there were any of those tigers, but we did get far enough to see that there were cheetahs.

Surprisingly, Gabs wasn't too interested in them. Unsurprisingly, however, the reason was probably because she was distracted by these big dogs (you may need to enlarge the picture below to see them clearly). They were seriously monstrous. Supposedly they are a special breed that are native to the same area of the world that the cheetahs are from. The Zoo had a great sign that told a story about how getting the dogs actually helped to tame some of the cheetahs... interesting how a dog can help tame a cheetah...

If Gabbie's favorite had not been Siberian Tigers in Utah, it would definitely have been Giraffes. She just loves them.

The Houston Zoo has about 8 of them. Gabs was in heaven. She especially liked the baby one.

The funny thing was, though, that because of the extreme heat, all of the adult Giraffes were huddled up in this one little shed... it was kinda funny too, cause they had about 3 other sheds, but they all wanted to be together in this one.

Taking this picture I just imagined the mother Giraffe sitting in the shed saying "crazy kids... you're gonna get heat stroke!"

So, I have to tell a funny story about this next picture:

I told you earlier about the freedom that we decided to give Gabs while at the Zoo this time (which freedom, by the way, we will be harnessing a bit next time with her awesome new monkey leash backpack (we love second-hand stores)). Well, after we were watching the Giraffes, we turned to look at the Elephants that were next door. We were all excited, because we could tell there were a lot of them. All of the sudden, Gabs goes booking it down the pathway.

Keeping a little distance cause I was curious what made her so excited that she took off, and not wanting to curb her enthusiasm about animals, I just followed her to make sure she was safe.

It was way cute when she got to where she was going, because what had made her so excited was that she had seen a cute little baby elephant! She just stood at the fence and stared at him... (Sadly I didn't get a picture of it)

We learned on this visit that the only elephants that have tusks are the males. Thus, at the Houston Zoo (that we saw) there were 3 adult females, 1 adult male, and 1 baby male.

This picture is one of the favorite pictures I have ever seen of Gabs:

I think, with the exception of possibly Kate and Adam, Gabbie is the biggest animal lover I have ever seen. All of her favorite books are about animals. She has always preferred stuffed animals to baby dolls. Her favorite shows on TV are Winnie the Pooh and Franklin (both about animals). She is just in heaven whenever we go anywhere related to animals.

Now we're excited to go back and see the other 85% of the Zoo!