We like animals.

Apparently, we like animals and doing things with cousins. One nice day, we hung out at Wheeler Farm.

Although I don't have any pictures, there were animals at the farm and we did find out that workers are given eggs and milk, etc from the animals and all farm animals are caged. Any animal not in a cage (wandering around free) was most likely just dropped off or decided to hang out while passing by.

Playing in the tree house.

We rode a wagon around the farm. I didn't know it was really that larger. Apparently you can camp in the area east of the farm. Crazy, right?

Wagon ride

A few days later we went to the Zoo.  

Baby birds in the Eagles nest.

The new Rocky Shores is pretty neat. I really liked the seal/sea lion enclosure. Sammi didn't pay much attention to the animals but loves being outdoors and around the kids.

Of course there was a Carousel ride.

We got to see the new baby giraffe. The giraffes are receiving a new enclosure at the zoo. It looks to be pretty fun, almost like the one at Cheyenne Mtn Zoo where you can feed the giraffes. We are excited. Although until its done, the entire area over by the Discovery playground is closed because that's where the enclosures will be located as part of the African Savanna.

That poor, cute thing dropped almost 4 feet to the ground at birth.

We sure love animals. 



 

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo...

We love the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and thanks to my awesome sister, we have a membership pass there. Although it's a bit of a drive, I don't think that will stop us from visiting because we love it so much. More zoos should be like this.

Jake's favorite part of the zoo. Ellie can't choose between the giraffes and the carousel. I love her giggle in this video.

The last time we came to the zoo, the bird house wasn't open so this was the first time we were able to feed the birds.

Can't you see the happiness in her face? I love kids.

What a lovely smile Ellie has.

We had a melt down at lunch because she had seen the carousel. Daddy was nice enough to ride with her after we finished eating.

The hardest part about this zoo is it sits on a mountain side so it is all hills. Walking around the exhibits on hills was a little hard on the pregnant lady. Although I do enjoy that most of the large cats, bears and other similar wildlife have natural habitats simply surrounded by fences.

I love this picture. It really is worth a thousand words.

We are ready to go anytime anybody wants to come with us. 

Denver Zoo Free day

Don't ask why. Maybe I was trying to be a good mom or I just wanted to get Ellie out of the house but we went to the zoo free day last week. It was an interesting experience. The day was sunny but a little chilly to start out. so we bundled up to walk around.

Ellie's awesome outfit and of course her new Minnie doll.

 Ellie was so excited to see animals but she really wanted to see elephants. She forgot about all that for a bit when she made a new friend to run around with. The 2 of them would just run ahead and bypass all the animals.  Sadly we had to go our separate ways but then Ellie focused on the animals again.

We thought the bear in the background was funny blocking the door like that.

 Although she was most excited to see elephants, she didn't get to see any. They are receiving a new habitat that opens later this year but since their place was finished, the elephants had moved there (behind construction lines) to become accustomed to the new home.

We did see lots of other animals, among them were snakes, lizards, fish and crocodiles which really seemed to make her excited. The one down side to the day was a small accident at the furthest corner of the zoo making it so we had to walk all the way back to the car to change Ellie's pants.

Spring was in the air and the animals were becoming twitterpated. We had to leave 2 exhibits before Ellie could see what was happening and yell or ask questions about what the animals were doing.

Peacocks and geese are so use to people that they walk right up to you to beg food. Ellie thought this was great until she decided to try a new game; sneak up on the peacock and blow on it's tail feathers then run away. What a silly girl.

Ellie stomping in puddles after blowing on some peacock feathers.

Obviously I wasn't great at taking pictures this time around but we did have a good time.

Grandma Wendy's Visit (day 4)

Saturday was a busy day for us. We woke up early, filled up with gas, put air in the tires and drove down to Colorado Springs.

Our first stop, the Cadet Chapel at Air Force Academy. Ellie and I have visited here before but Jake and my mom hadn't so we had a quick tour of the building. It was a sunny day but windy.


Ellie and I inside the Protestant (top) part of the Chapel.

This picture is no flash and it is all natural light coming in through the stained glass windows. You can see the 1 or 2 lights on at the bend in the ceiling. 

Holding on to Stanley for dear life.



The Chapel from outside.

It was so windy outside and for some reason, it really bothered Ellie. So after our quick stop, on to a new adventure; the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. They have a mountaineer sky ride and a large giraffe herd, so I was a little excited. Once at the zoo, we found out their special exhibit was naked mole rats. Can I say wow?

As you enter the first thing you come to is the giraffe herd.



Ellie is a little taken with the giraffe.

Ellie was super excited to see the giraffes this close. Then we noticed that you could buy food and feed the giraffes. So of course we had to do it. 



Yes, Ellie did really feed the giraffe by herself.

Jake had his own way of feeding the giraffes.

He tried a few more times and finally one was able to "lick" the cracker out of his mouth. In the video (on Jake's phone) it looks like the giraffe licks him, but he claims the giraffe tongue never touched him.

Please, sir, may I have some more.

There were around 15 giraffes that I counted in this enclosure.

We walked around and saw some other animals (wild hogs, monkeys, and a few others) and then ate lunch. After lunch, we looked at some small animals (insects and reptiles) but then decided try to ride the sky ride before it got shut down because of wind or whatever. It was basically a ski lift.  It moved really slow though.  Ellie actually seemed to like it, except when the wind howled past. We couldn't tell if it was because the wind was chilly, it shook the lift, or she didn't like the strong wind in her face.    

Look out at the top of the Sky ride, looking out towards Colorado Springs. 

There wasn't much up top as the ride could be accessed from inside the zoo or as a ride without zoo entrance. They had some Mongol huts, picnic tables, a small playground, and concessions. There was also this circle, cement room with about 12 foot walls covered in rock climbing grips.

I want to climb just like daddy.

Look at me go. Thanks for the lift, daddy.

We didn't stay up there long before riding back down. Then the real animal watching happened. We went to the primate house and saw the gorillas (there was a baby), the orangutans, and various other monkeys. This is also where they placed naked mole rats. We met another flat Stanley from Missouri and took their pictures together. Ellie was really tired at this point and acted scared of the big primates.

We then walked passed some hippopotami. The next enclosure had a moose with turkeys. When the turkeys gobbled, she giggled and mimicked them.

Brave Stanley standing so close to a porcupine sleeping in a tree.

Continuing on, we saw some river otters (one was swimming in circles, literally), cougars (who where just having a meal as we arrived), bears, leopards, tigers, and more.  The cougars, they gave one a snack to separate the 2 animals so they could feed them inside different cages. The workers said they have to feed them away from people and away from each other because they can become violent while eating.

Grandma, Ellie and mommy pretending to be bears. RRRAAWWWRR!



Look. Mommy tiger and baby tiger.

 

Help, I'm stuck.

Silly Ellie stuck her head all the way through and wouldn't let us help her pull it out, so it hurt her a little. We walked past the Wallabies just as they were being moved from their outside habitat to their indoor enclosure. The zoo helper was struggling with a stubborn wallaby who just didn't want to go inside. About that time, we started seeing peacocks. After standing next to them for about a minute, they would just open up. It was cool but a little creepy.

Let me show you how gorgeous I am.

We walked around and saw the elephants, who will be receiving a new habitat shortly, and some weird looking animals that looked like a mix between a giraffe and a zebra. It was about time to leave after that. We really had a good time. I think it was a fun zoo.


On our way to dinner, Ellie fell asleep in the car, of course. So we took an extra drive to kill time and allow her to sleep. We decided to go to the Garden of the Gods and let Stanley have his picture taken at Balanced Rock. Maybe one day, we will head to Garden of the Gods to actually walk around, hike, and maybe rock climb.

Jake helped Stanley climb up.

We stopped by Pikes Peak and Manitou Springs. Mostly it was just to show my mom what a cute little town it is and stop off at this little bath shop. While we were in the shop, Ellie woke up so we headed for dinner.  We ate at the BBQ place just outside of Manitou that we ate at last time we were down in the area.

It was a long but very fun day.

Lights at Christmas Time

I love lights at Christmas time. I don't know what it is about them. Its probably for the same reason I love fireworks. I think Ellie will be a lot like me and really enjoy lights as well because every time she sees them she says, "OOOOHHHH!!!" This year we went to see lots of lights.

First was Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo. It was my parents, Stef, Ellie and I. It wasn't all that cold but we still bundled up.

The lights are all in the shapes of animals.  A little known secret; at Zoo lights they sell these cool glasses that when you wear them, the lights are different shapes. This year was snowflakes. I didn't take a picture of what you see when you look through the glasses, but it is cool.

Here are the reindeer they had out on display. Ellie loves animals of course, although these ones have a vague resemblance to the ones on Grandpa Watterson's, Uncle Rob's, and Uncle Justin's walls.

Ellie with Grandma Wendy and Poppy DeVon.

Ellie and I. We had a picture taken here in front of the elephant when Ellie was only about 3 weeks old.

Next we went to Temple Square. We (Stef, Jake, Ellie and I) meet up with our friend Maree and her daughters and their friend. Ellie didn't stay in her stroller that long.

I love this picture of Ellie walking by Aunt Stef towards the Temple. Especially cause Ellie looks awesome in her snow gear.


Eventually Maree and the kids left and Marc, Cassie and Rebecca joined us. Becca was a good girl and stayed in her stroller most of the time. Sadly, Ellie was tired and starting to become a big brat at this point so we didn't get to see a lot with Marc and Cassie. It is still fun to go down to see the lights. 

Ellie and Daddy looking at the lights, trying to keep Ellie from jumping in the water.



Our happy family.

(P.S. As per my sister's suggestion, I forgot to mention that Ellie really did try to climb into that little stream at Temple Square. Her boot even fell off into the water. Luckily it landed right side up, floated, and no water got inside.)

Denver Zoo

September 17th, we went to the Denver Zoo. When Ellie loves animals so much, we thought it would be great. (Yes we know she won't remember it, but we will.)

We got there and ate lunch. We left home as soon as Jake was done with class so none of us had eaten yet. It was also nice because it gave us some time to look over the map and the activities to come up with a game plan. Once lunch was done, we headed over to the lion cage. There is a little house for the lion cage and also the hyenas/wild dogs. (They are improving parts of the zoo so animals share time in the outdoor areas sometimes.)

The first activity was feeding a bone to the lion and scraps and blood-cicles to the wild dogs. A zoo person came and explained what would happen then another person started throwing the items off the top of the house. The animals have great internal clocks. They became more active and watching the top of the house about 5 minutes before it started. They had to remove the lionesses from the lion cage because apparently the lions don't share well.

We continued wandering around to the rest of the cat cages; leopard, panthers, tigers, etc. It was interesting to see that the tigers had a liter of 4 cubs. They were really cute. (There are 2 of them wrestling in the background of the picture. The mom just paced in front of the window where all the people were watching.)

We walked past the elephants and giraffes on our way to the sea lion show. It was just a simple demonstration about what sea lions are taught and how they are taught to do those things. Ellie loved waving when the sea lion would swim by.

After watching the show, we walked over to the sea lion pool to see the new baby sea lion. The baby was adorable. It would just sit on the rock. If it tried to get in the water, the mom would swim over, then the cub would sit still. After about a minute, the cub started placing it's nose in the water and would blow bubbles. Then it would flip water with its flipper. We could have just sat there for hours and watched the little guy.

We walked around and saw the giraffes again and the hippos and some other weird looking animals. We were on our way to the penguin show. The zoo guy explained that the birds had colored bands on right or left flipper, depending on gender, and the colors indicated what year they were born. They do this because there is no way other than blood tests to determine gender. They had actually guessed wrong on 1-2 of the newborns this year and will have to switch the bands.

As we were watching the penguins, Jake is holding Ellie so she could see the penguins eating. All the sudden he says, "I think she just peed." Not thinking anything about it, I said, "OK. We'll find a bathroom and change her." I then noticed a small splash by my foot. Yes, Ellie had leaked through her diaper. Apparently kids pee a lot more when given plenty of water to make sure they aren't dehydrated. It had only been 2-3 hours since her last diaper change so it was a surprise. At least I knew she wouldn't be dehydrated.

Unfortunately her pants were all wet. So I washed them out in the bathroom sink and she went pant less through the rest of the zoo. We did reapply sunscreen to her legs. No need to burn those cute chubby legs.

We walked through the bird house and then started for the primate walk. Sadly all the primates, although they had huge outdoor areas, were inside. These cute little guys have the greatest mustaches.

The gorillas were all up high eating hay when we got there and didn't hold Ellie's interest. The orangutan's had a new baby as well. We didn't get a good picture of the baby because mom was very protective. At one point, she walked the baby to the back corner, fluffed up the straw, and wrapped the baby in the potato sack blanket that was in there. Then she picked up the entire package (with the baby inside) and moved it to another location. When the baby would crawl out, mom would come over and put it back in.

Notice no pants. It was a short but fun visit. Some of the exhibits were weird because of the habitat sharing but they were working on improvements. By the end of 2011/beginning of 2012 they plan to finish the new Asian habitat and shift the animals back around.

At the end we wandered into the gift shop and of course Ellie had to pick up every stuffed animal she could get her hands on and cuddled it and AAAHHH!!! Since there was no afternoon nap, she was asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot.