A Zoo Day

It was great to have a long weekend due to July 4th and we tried to take full advantage of the time we had with Sterling around! We decided on the zoo since it was rainy and overcast--we figured if it started to downpour we'd just go inside a building. We walked straight to the Amazon section since we had wanted to see it so bad last time but didn't quite make it. Turns out, we didn't finish it this time either, this zoo is big! There are three sections to the Amazon and we made it through two. It's kind of fun though, gives us something to look forward to.

These orange-flowered trees are everywhere in Miami. They get COVERED in the orange flowers and then they drop everywhere and make a big mess. But they are pretty.

I just LOVE this walkway by the river!

Ruth wanted to ride a duck SO bad--we'll have to save up and try them some time.

The entire Amazon section was little pathways like the picture below just SURROUNDED by huge, leafy vegetation. It's incredible. I loved it. It is just so green and they have cool tribal music playing so it is really just awesome.

I didn't get any pictures of the howler monkeys because they moved really fast and there were such thick wires that it wouldn't focus on the animals--but they really did howl, it was crazy!

There were LOTS of frogs on display in the amazon sections.

We watched this lizard for quite some time. He was pretty big, definitely at least twice the thickness of my arms and SO long! They didn't have glass in front of him which is kind of crazy. We were so close to him!

Freaky split tongue

Sterling wanted to see the leopard SOOO bad, but this is as close as we got to him:

Watching the leopard.

Yes, my son is wearing purple shoes. They are Ruth's-I promise. Somehow we made it out the door without making sure he had shoes on. Luckily, Ruth had a pair to spare.

Will

Ruth 

This is probably why Will looks like he has chicken pox--he has SO many mosquito bites on his face, poor kid--but the river winding around was really beautiful. 

A horny toad! Made me think of Old Yeller. Can you see his beady black eyes?

 I would not want to get in a fight with the guy in the picture below. He is HUGE!!! Bigger than my kids, thats for sure, and he looks like he's fully armored. It was insane. His knees weird me out.

This toucan was sweet.

These pictures are terrible because the glass was circular, so you can't see the fish but they were AWESOME. They are related to the barracuda except they are vegetarians, which is good, because they were MASSIVE! We stayed and looked at them for a long time to escape the heat outside.

Sterling thinks he is the inspiration for Buckbeak from Harry Potter.

Ruthie lucked out and got her face painted. She wasn't so sure about it at first, but she liked it in the end.

More buckbeak

We walked past the turtles on our way out and this guy was up and moving around (see the other two just soaking in the water?). SO AWESOME!

Until next time, zoo!