Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium – part 2

After we walked around through the Asian exhibit, Isabel was getting hungry so we walked really quickly through a small animal exhibit with…

Blind Cave fish (these fish have no eyes – none, so weird looking)
a Barn owl and
a 16 ft. Burmese python!

Then we stopped along the path and had a picnic lunch. After lunch we headed over to Rocky Shores and saw…

Beluga whales (last time we came they only had 1; now the zoo has 2 beluga whales)
Pacific walrus

Isabel and I watching the walrus swim.

Then we headed to the Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater to watch an afternoon show. We saw…

Eurasian eagle owl (which weighed 4 lbs. and had a wingspan of 5 ft. – that’s just about my height!)

Tawny Frogmouth.

Laughing kookaburra bird.

Bald eagle. We think this is an injured bird because of the way it held it’s wing.

Domestic rats
Beaver
North American porcupine
Armadillo
King Vulture
Indian runner ducks
Abyssinian ground hornbill bird
Green-winged macaws
Seriema bird

After the show it was time to head back home. We did stop by the Carousel and let Isabel have a go-around on Patriot.  This time she rode on one that actually went up and down. At first, I thought oh no, as her eyes got big as saucers and she gripped the pole and looked like she was about to cry…but she really enjoyed it…

Isabel and I on the carousel in a blur.

Isabel and Patriot.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium – part 1

What a wonderful gorgeous day at the zoo we had yesterday! We saw over 20 different animals and got to explore the newly opened Animal Avenue. At the Animal Avenue and Kids’ Zone we got to see…

Ring-tailed lemurs

Poison Arrow Frogs (Blue and Green/Black) along with

Meerkats
Black Lemurs
Green Crested Basilisk lizard
Ocellated Ray
Parma Wallaby (shy-but cute)
Antilles Pink-Toed Tree Spider (this spider was HUGE!)
Western Bell’s Hinge-back Tortoise…
and then we (Isabel) got distracted by all the play-ground toys and of course the Otter SLIDE! This was Isabel’s first time on the otter slide…she would have spent the rest of the day going down it if we would have let her…

Jumping off an alligators back.

Going down the otter slide.

So we headed over to see the Asian Forest Sanctuary with the elephants, tigers and monkeys. Here we got to see…

Siamang and Malayan tapir.
These two were teasing each other while we were there. So funny to watch!

Female white-cheeked gibbon (she looked so sad) along with…

Sumatran tigers (he was sleeping…all the times we’ve gone to the zoo; they are sleeping)
Lowland anoas
Asian otters
and of course the Asian Elephants (BTW- who kept their rears to us the whole time!)

As we were walking along the paths from exhibit to exhibit the zoo had gorgeous flowers blooming. I had to bend down and get a few shots to share.

Stunning red ones…

Vibrant violet ones…

Beautiful blues.

Conversation with Isabel

Isabel and I had this conversation tonight over a bowl of vegetable alphabet soup; I was going over the letters in her bowl with her while I was blowing on it to make it cooler for her to eat. The conversation went a little like this…

Me: Do you want to go to school?

Isabel: (nods head)

Me: When you go to school, you will learn new things.

Isabel: Jesus happy?

Me: Yes, Jesus will be happy for you to go to school. Jesus wants you to learn and grow. Do you want to learn and grow?

Isabel: (nods head and says) Be doctor.

Me: You want to be a doctor when you grow up?!?!?

Isabel: (nods head)…Give out Band-aids.

Me: You want to give out Band-aids! (chuckling) Well, you can be a doctor when you grow up and give out all the Band-aids you want. You’ll have to go to a lot of school though.

Isabel: Jesus happy.

Me: Yes, Jesus will be very happy.

Mickey glasses

Isabel received these glasses as a gift just after she was born…since I like Mickey Mouse. Anyway, I’ve kept them up outta sight since then but today she spotted them and asked if she could play with them. They are still to big for her head, hence her walking around with her arms on the frames. Ha-Ha! Just adorable! Enjoy!

Open.

Closed.

Spork washing

This photo doesn’t have anything to do with washing the spork…it’s just to cute to pass up!

“Love Daisy” she says

Isabel wanted to help out with washing the spork today.
She helped at first but then playing in the water was more fun then washing the spork!

Catching water off the spork…later she catches water dripping off the spork in a cup and drinks it…eeewww!

Daddy’s truck…bumper…needs to be washed too.

Washing Daddy’s bumper.

Reading

I am a reader. Love to read, so therefore I had to get Isabel into the love of reading as well. And she loves to read: carries books all over the house; upstairs, downstairs, in the car, in bed, everywhere (if I let her!). If the house has “gone quiet”, you can find her reading on the sofa or Daisy’s bed or in her rocker in her room. Her all time favorite book is the story of Noah. She loves this story so much we have several different books just about Noah! I have read so much to her, she now knows what each book is about and can even explain parts of the story from each and every page. It’s so amazing and wonderful! My hope is that as she gets even older she continues to love read.

Reading to Trudie.

“Grover takes care of baby” as Isabel takes care of baby Trudie.

(har) monica

Along with Isabel’s drum/tambourine/shakers kit, it also came with a harmonica as well. Up until a few days ago, Isabel couldn’t get enough air into it to make it play. Now it’s her “new” favorite toy! She does rather well with it and has already played concerts for Gma’s, Gmpa’s, Auntie’s, and Uncle’s, who were all rather quite impressed with her new talent.

She calls it her “monica”.
“Mommy where my monica?” she says.

While Isabel plays (like in the above photo); she places her megaphone (which she calls her “song”) up to one eye, closes both eyes and bellows out sounds from her monica. It’s very entertaining to watch! I’ll have to add the video…too!