Lions, Tigers, & Bears . . . Oh My!

The plan on Saturday was to take advantage of the beautiful Fall weather, except for on the way to Omaha the heavens opened up and it started to pour.  I felt sick because I had promised the girls a day of fun at the Henry Doorly Zoo.  When we finally arrived and pulled into the parking lot the rain showed no signs of letting up, so we ate the picnic lunch we had prepared earlier, in the van.  Then we carried the girls into the zoo under umbrellas.  We started our "fun" day in the shelter of the Lied Jungle.

Posing in front of one of the many waterfalls

This picture is one of those rare miracles where both girls are looking at the camera and smiling perfectly . . . first try!

Steven surrounded by his girls.  :)

Something happened while we were in the jungle.  The rain stopped, the clouds parted,  & the sun started shining brilliantly.  The temperature was 68 degrees making the rest of our day at the zoo perfect!!  Look how happy she is that the sun came out.

We did a lot of walking so Steven did what any loving father would do . . . flung Audrey over his shoulder.

We have been to the Omaha zoo countless times and never seem to make it to the petting zoo.  I guess it just never seems appealing to see animals that you can see any time by driving down a country road in NE.  But the weather was beautiful and we were bound and determined to see all of the animals this trip.

Peering at the River Otters.

My first encounter with Budgies was at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado.  I was surprised to see that Omaha has them too.

I would have been perfectly content with skipping the Budgies, but the girls LOVE to feed and pet them.  So, I was brave and went in.  Good heavens it is like a scene from "The Birds"!  They are flying all over the place clipping your head as they do.  I was constantly ducking and covering while Steven watched from the outside, laughing the whole time.  To make matters worse, we had purchased Budgie food that the darn birds weren't interested in.  Madeleine and Audrey ignored my desperate pleas to leave because they were determined to feed a Budgie.  Thankfully after many failed attempts this bird finally took the bait.

Shortly after this picture was taken Madeleine had a moment of panic.  She no longer wanted to hold the bird and without warning passed it to me.

What am I supposed to do with this bird??? (Madeleine took this picture, documenting that I indeed was briefly brave enough to hold a bird)

After surviving our Budgie encounter the girls took a rest . . . in the mouth of a Hippo!

Then, that got me thinking.  We took a picture of Madeleine in the mouth of that very same hippo 6.5 years ago.

She has changed a little over the last 6.5 years, but her sweet smile and disposition are exactly the same.
Shortly after our break we made the long trek to the aquarium so Madeleine could see her favorite animals at the zoo; the penguins.

Posing with some marine life.

Audrey is very much a daddy's girl these days.

It almost looks like they are in the water with the fish . . .

Next on our journey to see all of the animals were the giraffes.

Not quite as exciting as when we got to feed them at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado.

It seemed appropriate to have my monkeys pose for a picture with a monkey.

Me + my girls= happiness.

Just some random prettiness . . .

In all the times I have visited the zoo, I have never encountered people feeding the animals.  However, during our visit there Saturday I saw it happen on more than one occasion.  Although it upset me that these people were blatantly breaking the rules and possibly harming the animals in the process, it didn't stop me from having Steven take pictures of the animals on the receiving end.  Look at them holding out there hands, begging for the food.

These little monkey creatures were so dang cute!!

I'm open!  Throw it to me!!

In all seriousness though, don't feed the animals.  :)

Finally, like I say in every zoo post, it wouldn't be complete without pictures of the animals we saw.  If you double click on the collage you will be able to see it better. 

The man I married driving home at the end of the day . . .

He is always losing his own sunglasses forcing him to wear my blinged out ones when the sun is exceptionally bright.  Yeah, on that note I will end this post.