FALL TEXAS TRIP: Day 15

We had SO much fun at the zoo today with Karis. I'm posting way too many photos, but Grandpa Jones takes amazing animal pictures and you certainly would NOT want to miss seeing them, would you?

We saw LIONS and TIGERS and BEARS ...

And little Karis enjoyed herself hugely with every single animal!

What I like about the zoo in Austin is that ... it isn't BIG or fancy ... it doesn't really have many exotic animals ... but it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere (if beautiful hill country can be called that) ... it's nice and quiet out there! The zoo is kind of roughly laid out and you can get nice and close to the animals. The workers there are very friendly and informative too.

We had a coupon for a free bag of animal pellets ~ Karis couldn't wait to feed the animals! We walked by several animal areas ... the first was the LIONS and the sign clearly said: DO NOT FEED THE LIONS. We told Karis what the sign said. She asked us, "Why not?" So we told her lions wouldn't be very interested in pellets because they preferred stuff like chickens instead. "Then we should have brought some chickens, grammy!" Karis said.

But we finally found the goats, who were very glad to see Karis and her bag of food. It was hilarious watching Karis feed these goats.

I have more goat pictures, but somehow these flower pictures got uploaded here ...

There were beautiful flowers growing everywhere at the zoo ... but I've only posted TWO pictures of them ... amazing.

These giant turtles are Galapagos turtles. They love water and mud. The zookeeper told us that when it rains, she can't get them to come inside. There were also giant desert turtles (but I didn't take a picture of them) who are just the opposite of the Galapagos turtles. They absolutely HATE the water. Their shells were a very light brown.

These particular turtles are over 150 years old.

We took a whole bunch of animal pictures. One of these days, I am really going to have to get serious about making an animal alphabet book ...

Grandpa Jones used his super zoom on this tiger ... it almost feels like he is in the cage with him!

I think tigers are one of the most beautiful animals God made, don't you?

I think this is a Marmoset (above).

Karis was completely UNimpressed with any of the animals that she could NOT feed. The goats were her favorite. There were many different areas with goats and she was very careful with her pellets ...

See her happy little face?

The last time grandpa and I were at the Austin Zoo was ... the fall of 2007. Karis wasn't even two! They were just beginning to lay the tracks for the zoo train back then and today we got to ride it!

Karis was very pleased to ride the zoo train with us!

We stopped by the zoo gift shop on our way out of the zoo and purchased some little animal rings for all of the grandchildren!

We even purchased one for Olivia, even though we knew they were only for little kids ... but she got a kick out of picking out a ring from the pile ... and did her usual NONpose for the camera ...

But then I asked if I couldn't just pretty please see her face ...

We did all of the usual afterschool stuff. After dinner, Karis and Jackson painted some nice pictures. We read a ton of good stories together ... and everyone is tucked in for the night. Olivia's homework is all done and we had a good time chatting with her tonight. Tomorrow, Karis is back at preschool for the day. We have been invited over to a neighbor's house for "tea" in the late morning and have several errands to run. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow night ...