Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was spent trying out the new-to-us Houston Zoo! We were a little skeptical at first as it seemed to be smaller than our more familiar Oregon Zoo but 2.5 hours into our visit we were only a third of the way through and ready to head out, leaving the rest for another visit. This zoo has a fabulous collection of birds! We enjoyed meandering through, reading about the different varieties and seeing all the pretty colors each bird had.

Here we are before the zoo opened. It was a bright and sunny day so some eyes are closed.

Checking out the birds.

A "fundraising" bird you could feed coins to, we didn't.

Here are some pictures of displays of Lego animals. They were so cool! Each had a sign that told how many Legos were in each animal and how long it took to build each one.
Frogs under a microscope is this picture, just ignore the backsides of everyone else in it. Then, after seeing Lego flamingos, we went to view the real things.
Near the flamingos were some tortoises. Their keeper was there feeding them and answered all sorts of questions the kids had for her. It was fun to learn more about these animals.
(Not a real one, just in case you were concerned.)
Seeing some type of deer.

There are play areas interwoven all through the exhibits to keep kids occupied. It's great! Here is a pic of Jaron showing how to use it.
We finished up the day with the petting zoo area.

In case you didn't notice, quite a few pictures included me on this visit. Rachel was the photographer for those shots but I insisted she get one of her.

After our visit to the zoo we had lunch downtown at McDonald's. We decided to make a quick visit to Texas Children's Hospital because Ethan was there and all the kids from Nathan to Caleb had never met him. For all the time the kids sacrificed in having me gone from the home they wanted to meet the little man worthy of my time. I forgot to take any pictures. But they each enjoyed getting to meet Zach's younger brother.(Zach's dad was up for the weekend so they were all getting to spend time together as a family.)
It was a warm Texas day so we headed home to do a little grillin' and chillin'. Jason moved the big screen t.v. from its storage spot in the garage, hooked up the portable DVD player and we watched Transformers outside while swimming. It was a great evening to finish a great day.

Family days are the best days!