houston zoo

david and julie hooked us up with some free passes (plus early entry) to the houston zoo after our 4th of july festivities.  with their memberships and guest pass, we ended up only having to pay for one ticket between the nine of us. 

it was nice to get there a little earlier than most of the crowds.  we check out the sea lions first.  they were swimming all over the place.  we thought about going back later to see a show, but never did make it.

the lions were out and cruising all over, too.  not long after we walked away we heard them having quite the roar-off! 

 the grizzly bears were fun to watch.  clearly we couldn't keep isaac in the stroller for long with all the fun animals to look at.

this little kitty looked so comfortable sacked out over the log. 

isaac climbing around just like the monkeys :)

we stopped to have a snack near one of the penny smashing machines.  cody just loved looking at it and turning the handle.  he finally convinced us to let him get one.  i guess 51 cents is a pretty cheap souvenir huh? and man he loves that penny!

a very rare family shot! 

all but julie and lily took a ride on the carousel.  cody loved to tell people that he rode an armadillo. 

gorilla hands 

a little percussion break 

and some running around in early human dwellings. 

my favorite part of the day was when we stopped by to see the elephants.  they were taking a bath!  it was so fun to watch them go under, lay in front of the jet, and play with each other!

the elephants above are the male elephants which are kept separate from the females.  there were some cute baby elephants that were pretty new. 

one of the zoo employees told us that one elephant had been in the circus at one time and she was teaching the other elephants her tricks.  how funny huh?

they had these giant bugs all over the zoo that were fun to climb on. 

we stayed until just about lunchtime when we were all tired out and starting to get overheated.  what a fun day!!