This past weekend we went to Richmond for a fun couple of days with Tad’s family!  On Saturday, we went to the zoo, which we hadn’t visited since Vera was eight months old.

We all had a blast!  The zoo is really large, with tons and tons of different animals!  I was juggling kids most of the time, so I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked, but I’m loving the shots I did get.

Vera and Cordelia liked seeing the prairie dogs!

Isn’t Cordelia’s little ringlet so cute?

Love my girlies.

It was a gorgeous day!

This orangutan seemed like he enjoyed watching us as much as we enjoyed watching him!

This was another animal that seemed to think WE were funny looking!

Mama giraffe just had a baby on Monday (watch the birth video here!), so we were so excited to see the “little” guy (200 lbs. and 6.5 ft. tall!) on Saturday.  When we first saw him, he was nursing his mom.

But eventually he peeked out so we could get a better view.

The mother seems like she is bonding with him well!  She was very doting.

I got to feed some of the giraffes by hand!

Slobbery tongue!

Tad and me

My, what pretty eyes you have!

Vera really wanted to feed the giraffe too, but she’d chicken out at the last second and drop the food on the ground instead.  She really liked the giraffes, though!  Cordelia fed one, but was less than enthused about the slobber on her hand.

Cousin Drew had fun feeding the giraffes too!

The baby!

He was just precious.

The other baby, even more precious.  🙂

Here’s Vera trying again!

This is the dad, we think, giving kisses to his little guy.

Jude was a happy boy all day!  He really enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine.

There were also five new baby cheetah cubs, which we were able to see from a distance.  I may as well not even post this picture, since it’s so far away!  (Here are better images of them.)

We got to feed this adorable baby camel too!  His fur was so soft and he loved having his head rubbed.

Towards the later part of the day, Cordelia was getting tired, so I popped her in the Boba and wore her for a while.

It was super sweet to get to cuddle her!

We all liked seeing the penguins.

When I asked Cordelia what her favorite animals were, she said the monkeys!

Thank you, Grandanny and Grammy for the fun day at the zoo!

I have more pictures from our weekend that I’ll post soon.

Last spring we went to the “bird zoo” that is less than an hour away from us.  Vera was pretty scared of the birds last year (they’ll come land on your seed stick!), but when we went this spring, she had grown in her bravery!

Sometimes the birds surprise you!

Cordelia was the nervous one this year!

I got some close-up shots while I had a bird on my seed stick!

We saw LOTS of other birds too, including flamingos, which we were also able to feed.

Vera thought it was funny how they stood on one foot, so he had to try that as well.

We also saw ducks, geese, parrots, swans, peafowl, and more!

The girls rode in the stroller while Tad pushed.

Jude was quite happy on my back in my Boba!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch, and then Vera wanted her picture taken on the turtle like last year!

Admission to the bird zoo is a bit pricey, but I saved some money from a few “side-jobs” God has blessed me with so that we were able to go!

We enjoyed seeing God’s amazing creation in such an up-close and personal way!

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