Adam took the beginning of the week off of work this week (well deserved –he’s been working so hard!) and we’ve been trying to do something fun every day. Yesterday didn’t quite pan out as we planned to go biking and it started raining,but we did enjoy spending time together. Today we decided to go to the Quad Cities to visit the Niabi Zoo. It was a zoo I had never been to before and Adam hadn’t been to in decades. The additional bonus about going today was that it was half-price day. We invited Adam’s sister (Megan’s godmother) and left early this morning.
Once we got there and paid our admission,we eagerly went to the first exhibit that we could see –the elephants. Megan was too eager to get on and see the rest of the animals to really pay much attention to the animals but Nick (who had never been to a zoo before) was amazed to see these huge animals right in front of him.
After the elephants,we saw the dinosaurs…oh wait,just kidding,but there was a dinosaur statue that the kids sat on and posed for a picture on.
The koi are always a huge hit and it was a lot of fun to feed them.
Next we went to the petting zoo and fed the animals there.
Even more fun than feeding the koi (in Megan’s mind for sure) was feeding the goats. She continued to talk about the baby goats for the rest of the day/evening. I think she would have brought one of those home if she had her way.
The next part of the zoo was by far the favorite of mine and Adam’s. We went into the Australian section and walked into a fenced in area that had wallabies…
…and emus –all wandering free!
In this same area was an aviary filled with a bunch of lorikeets. They were beautiful birds and when we came in,they asked if we wanted to feed them. We said yes,and even after I realized it would cost money ($1),we still did it. I got a tiny little shot glass of nectar. Was it worth it??
Totally!!!! These things landed all over us It was so cool!!!
(oh and the wet stripes on my shirt are from the fences we leaned against earlier –it was a dreary/drizzly day)
Adam at one point had 3 on him. They loved his hat!
What beautiful birds!
For as much as Adam and I loved it,the kids were not happy about it. Megan was absolutely traumatized by the birds (she was near tears when one was chewing on my hair) and Nick was constantly yelling “Shoop!!”to shoo the birds away. They were thrilled to leave the bird area. We weren’t.
Aunt Kelly got in on the bird feeding action as well.
after we finally left Australia,we headed to Africa and saw the giraffes
and visited some scaly animals.
both kids loved the “turtles”(tortises)
and while it was exciting to see the lions,
they really didn’t do much. The male did get up and move at one point,but they were pretty subdued.
The baby camel (born in June) was a big hit.
but the bobcats were a lot more fun to watch. The three in this enclosure paced,climbed the trees,and were generally entertaining.
I was most impressed by the habitat for the wolves. This is an older zoo and some of the cages for the animals are pretty stinkin’small,but the wolf exhibit was large and fairly realistic looking. 
We learned that porcupines REALLY stink (think 13 year old who hasn’t showered in weeks and weeks)…
and watched a tiger play ball and swim in her pool.
we saw the (enormous!) black bears pacing in their pen
and after seeing all of the animals,stopped to rest on some flower chairs.
The last highlight of the day was riding on the train. 
The train took Adam,Megan &Nick around the entire zoo and they could see,one last time,all of the animals in the zoo. All three of them really enjoyed it!
What a fun day it was and I’m quite certain that we’ll return to this zoo again. What fun!
Lydia loves the baby goats too! Oh and we used to be able to feed the lorakeets too,but they took that exhibit away. Aren't they cool how they aren't afraid of you and drink away. So fun!