Zoo-per Sunday

This weekend we had an opportunity to take a very special trip to the zoo. My company had done some work recently with the Houston Zoo, and part of that special relationship, we got to arrange a behind-the-scenes tour. In this tour, we got to see some animals up close and personal. How close?

As you can see, the first stop was at the giraffe exhibit where it was feeding time! They had bins of romaine lettuce, kale, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Other kids on the tour were a bit hesitant, but Ethan jumped right in!

Here, Ethan is feeding the 9 month-old "baby" giraffe who was eager for some salad:

Then Ethan got to give the big male giraffe, Keeva, some carrot. I think he was hungry because in this picture you can't see the carrot, or even Ethan's hand for that matter!

Now, Jill got a bit more adventurous. She put a piece of sweet potato in her mouth and Keeva took it!

I couldn't pass up the opportunity, either. Giraffe breath stinks!

But that was just the first stop of the tour. The next stop was to see one of the elephants. They took us back into the pens and lined us up along the wall to meet the pachyderm. While in there she did several tricks for us including waving "hi":

Finally, we went to see some smaller animals. On the one side of the "barn" were reptiles and Ethan got to pet lizards, turtles, snakes, and a baby alligator:

Then we ended with petting the cute furry animals. Ethan's favorite was the HUGE bunny rabbit:

It was an awesome day and the folks at the Houston Zoo were awesome. We can't wait to go back, even if there will be more distance between us and the animals!