the zoo!

last weekend, justin's dad (grandpa browne) came to visit.  i had bought a groupon to the austin zoo several months ago, but given that it has been a million degrees for as long as i can remember, we hadn't made it yet, so we thought it would be a fun outing to take advantage of the lovely fall weather (yes, a high of 90 is fall here).  we started the morning at trudy's for brunch, then jb and his dad hit the natural gardener (this amazing outdoor/gardening place) while i hung in the car playing words with friends and relishing how cute ek is when she's sleeping.

when we got to the zoo, emme woke up and we plopped her in her stroller, where she remained for not very long because there was just so much to see.  the austin zoo is a sanctuary zoo, which means all the animals there have been surrendered or rescued.  it's so unfathomable to me that people think they should have these wild animals - the zookeeper we met told us a story about a trucker who bought a tiger cub at a truck stop because "he thought it would be cool to ride around with a tiger, until the tiger started eating his truck".  anyway, i'm so glad there's a place for these sweet animals to live when humans invade their natural habitats and ruin their instincts.  it's really amazing - you don't see giraffes and hyenas and gorillas like you might at a big fancy zoo, but you stand less than 10 feet away from pretty much every animal they've got.  there are probably 10 big, gorgeous tigers; lions; a black bear; an 18 month-old kangaroo joey; big, old turtles; a pack of wolf hybrids; tons of monkeys, and more.  the best part is that the zoo is super manageable - it takes about an hour or two to navigate the whole thing, but you can spend as much or as little time anywhere as you want.  there's also a big petting area with goats, llamas, deer, and sheep (including the blind baa baa black sheep i'm feeding in the picture below).

anyway...emme was mesmerized by the sights and sounds and smells.  she did lots of pointing and squealing, and she even said turtle like 5 times.  we finished up the adventure with a picnic lunch for emmeline on the benches.  she was interested in her grandpa's sno-cone, but contented herself with broccoli, avocado, turkey, and clementine.