The Zoo Crew

We made plans with some friends of ours to visit the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden yesterday. The weather was beautiful -- sunny, low humidity (comparatively speaking) and a little cooler than it has been. I loaded up the kids (everyone but Sawyer, who chose to remain at home, in bed, when he found out that we were leaving at 8 am) and we headed out for a day with the animals!!

The kids all had a great time, and although it was crowded, it wasn't unBEARable (yes, my feeble attempt at a joke). We really enjoyed getting to spend time with Sherry, my friend from Salt Lake City, and her beautiful family, and my friend Michelle and her two adorable girls. Here's a picture of all the kids, minus Harper, who opted out -- appropriately deemed the ZOO CREW. It really WAS a zoo trying to keep up with all these little monkeys!

This wasn't our first visit to a zoo with Oakley. We actually toured the zoo in Fuzhou, the capital of her province, in China. I can't say, however, that we enjoyed that visit. The animals were living in squalid conditions -- tiny, overcrowded, filthy quarters. The majority of them looked sick and the smell was so awful that it was difficult to breathe. There were also large (LARGE) rats running all over the place. We left there feeling really sad, depressed, and thankful for the zoos in the USA.

We really enjoyed our visit yesterday to the Cincinnati Zoo.


Oakley loved seeing all the animals and the monkeys were, by far, her favorite. Actually, I think they were the favorite among all of my family. Oakley spent all afternoon shouting, "Oo, Oo, Ah, Ah," the call of the monkey.

We spent a lot of time in Gorilla World watching the baby gorilla being taken care of by its Mama and the big silverback. They were amazing, and with my zoom lens I was able to capture some great shots.

I love the one of the Mama gorilla holding the baby to her chest -- it looks like she's smiling. Just another proud Mama!

Oakley was just as enamored with the ducks and turtles as she was with the big tigers and the elephants. The only things she was a little leery of were the giant cockroaches and centipedes in Insect World, and the blind pygmy moles. And really, who can blame her? They made me shudder, too!