Zoo Day with Gracie

I don't know if I have talked about Alex's friend Gracie on here yet. Basically, he is convinced that he is going to marry her when he grows up. In fact, the other day after playing with a little buddy from church named Caleb, Alex said "Mom! Did you know that Caleb is going to marry Gracie too!?" I said, "Really? Well how is that going to work? You can't both marry her right?!" Alex laughed and said, "No, of course we can't both marry her. I guess we'll just have to have a fight over her when we get older. You know like the gorillas! Whoever is strongest gets to marry Gracie!" hahahahaha  Too funny that kid.

Anyway, back to the point of my post. A few weeks ago, before the weather started to get kinda hot, we went with Gracie and her mom to the zoo. We went really early in the morning and it was the best zoo day ever! Awesome because we were practically the only people there. Awesome because Gracie was there and that makes everyone happy. Awesome because the weather was cool and breezy. And awesome because I got to see Alex explain to a zookeeper what a Caracal was. We couldn't find the Caracal and when we asked a zookeeper where it was, the zookeeper looked at us blankly and said, "What is a Caracal?" To which Alex smartly replied, "Well, a Caracal is a medium sized Wild Cat. Caracal is the Turkish word for Black eared because Caracals have tufts of black hair sticking up from the ears and the backs of their ears are also black. They can leap 10 feet straight into the air to catch Guinea Fowl...their favorite meal." hahahahaha  The guy just looked at Alex and shook his head in disbelief. It was hilarious. Anyway, without further ado...here are some photos....

The Siamang Gibbons. Another one of Alex's favorite animals. You should have heard him  "talking" to these guys. :)

That's Gracie. She is loved a lot by all of my kids. She and Alex have such a blast playing together as they both looooove and adore animals. 

That mass of stuff between the mommy and baby baboon is food. He was feeding them. And yes...he did dress as a pirate for the zoo. 

Look at those cute girls. They loved this part of the zoo with all these statues to climb on.

Alex named this guy Joseph...after his Daddy. Isn't that sweet?!

Alex loves Orangutans. He especially loved that he could climb on this one. 

  

That is a Caracal. This little lady was missing a leg....which is why she is at the zoo.  Cool ears huh?!

I loved the Bald Eagles. Majestic. Gorgeous.