O Beautiful For Spacious Skies ...

Our Fourth of July was uncharacteristically cool and cloudy, and while that may have spoiled some people's plans, it coincided perfectly with ours. As planned, we took a trip to John Ball Park Zoo with my mother-in-law, father-in-law, and niece, and the cooler weather left the animals less lethargic than usual and the crowds a lot smaller than expected.



We first saw the wallabies and their joeys. It never really dawned on me how wallabies and kangaroos nurse their young, but we actually got to see it firsthand yesterday ...



In the pouch! Who knew?



Then we went to the petting zoo and I actually got to pet a chicken! One of these chickens, to be exact ...


It was remarkably soft. I would have loved to have held it and pet it for a while. But I didn't think the zoo would have been cool with me picking up their chicken and putting it in my purse in exchange for a few size 4 diapers.

This goat apparently likes to eat what is not his (e.g., pants, maps) so we steered clear of him.

I think these guys were guinea fowl. The one on my side of the fence was trying to get to the one on the other side of the fence, though I don't know for what reason. My husband thought they were wanting to fight each other; I thought they were wanting to cuddle. Guess we'll never know.

My son got to pet a goat! He did a really good job and wasn't afraid of it at all, and he didn't pull its fur like I thought he might. Whew! (Yes, we promptly used hand sanitizer after our trip to the petting zoo.)

We saw a capybara (the world's largest rodent) and a relative of the llama looking a little tired.

I don't know what kind of animal this was, but I thought it was too pretty to pass up taking a picture of.

My son loved playing the drums in the African exhibit. Tapping is totally his thing!

Apparently the zoo tuckered my little guy out because he fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep for a little nap in his high chair.

After waking up, he made a total mess of the living room. He spent most of the afternoon and evening enjoying his throng of toys ...

... and books.

After they saw The Proposal (which they enjoyed), my mom, dad, and sister came over to share some strawberry pie with us. Since my son won't be eating strawberries until he is at least one year old, he got to have some Cheerios instead. And, at some point, he decided to share them with his Grandpa E.

So cute! He took a few of them back before they made it into my dad's mouth, but he got some of them in. First time feeding someone else! Woo hoo!

I hope you all had a fun holiday!