Family Alive

Today was the perfect day to put our zoo membership

to use. It is the 50th birthday of the Birmingham zoo,

so there were free train and carousel rides, free cake

and ice cream and the last weekend to see the beautiful

Butterfly Encouter exhibit. Besides, since visiting

last month with my mom, Analise and I were anxious to

take Brian back to share our new favorite animal

exhibits with him – and to bring you pictures!! Above,

we’re all settled in for a train ride (Analise didn’t

have many smiles for the camera today, though she

enjoyed and pointed at all the animals she saw).

Our favorite exhibit at the zoo is the Lorikeet

Aviary. It’s an enclosed structure filled with

lorikeets (birds) that you can walk into. For $1, you

can buy a cup of nectar that the birds will FLOCK to.

Last time with my mom, I had at least 10 birds on me at

one point, including one on Analise’s head! This time

they stayed on my arm. Analise liked the birds, but

after a while, it got to be a bit overwhelming to have

them flapping and squawking around her head. Brian

enjoyed it just as much as I thought he would! Above is

one of the better pictures of Analise and I, though we

have a series of them, including pictures with the birds

on the neckline of my shirt, flapping in my face, and

sitting on my shoulder next to Analise. Below is a

close up of one eating from Brian’s cup of nectar.

One of my favorite parts of our last visit was the Butterfly Encounter. It’s another enclosed structure, filled with flowers and bushes and lots of butterflies. I love that you can usually get very close, close enough for a good picture. Butterlies are so hard to photograph! Today, though, there weren’t quite as many butterflies as last time, maybe because the “season” is almost over. Here’s 2 of our best butterfly pics:

The tiger was pretty cool. He was pacing back and forth in front of the glass, eyeing hte couple kids who wanted to get nose to nose with him. If you’ve seen the movie Madagascar, I imagined it was similar to when the lion started seeing everything as steak:)

Another favorite was the exhibit with the giraffes. Analise is pointing, below, at an ostrich that was eating nearby. The giraffes are being fed on that platform, and there are other small deer-like animals (kudus, I believe) in the exhibit. A girl walking by said to her mom, “3 giraffes, 2 ostriches, and 4 canteloupe.”

We have many more pictures (Brian actually took 90!), but here’s the last couple – Analise and Brian enjoying their carousel ride, and a picture from yesterday of Analise sleeping, which could have been taken today after our zoo trip:)