The last full day of summer vacation

The botanical garden area at the Columbia Zoo

Laughing because they ran under the sprinkler that was keeping all the plants wet on this very hot day

Sunflowers......one of my very favorite flowers

Deciding which way to go

I don't wanna swim where he swims

Koi......I love them.....they make me happy. One day I really want a koi pond in my backyard. Probably won't ever be able to do that though since I have Labs. They would just eat them.

The flamingos had laid eggs. Can you see the egg directly under this one? Ansley thought it was so cool!

Cooling off under the mist fan.......it felt so good

Scuffling........reminded us of the way our dogs play with each other

Jumping in to cool off

Always have to have a goofy picture

I tried to get a good picture of the dumpster diving squirrel but he came out so fast that he scared me and I jumped so I only got part of him in the picture. He came out of the trash with a very big french fry. Very entertaining to watch.

Beautiful giraffe skin.......pretty on a giraffe but I just can't get into giraffe print on a purse. (Sorry - I don't mean to offend anyone)

This baby giraffe ran all over the place. I've never seen a giraffe run....ever. They are very awkward animals.

Elisabeth feeding the giraffe. It took her a while to get up the courage to feed it. But now she says this was her favorite part of the day.

Ansley feeding the giraffe

How'd you like to have those teeth?

Getting the last bit of nectar out of the cup

Ansley feeding the Lorikeet. Elisabeth agreed to be in the picture but she definitely wasn't going to hold a bird. They made her nervous and she ended up dropping her cup of nectar when one flew near her.

Me feeding the Lorikeets. John and I did this at the Jacksonville zoo years ago.....it's pretty cool!

Cute Koala bears. We checked this exhibit several times during the day and they were always sleeping.

Ansley at the top of the rock climbing wall

Riding the carousel

Lovingly biting the tigers head.

Our little monkeys

Today was the last full day of summer vacation (I'm kind of sad but kind of excited). We all got up early this morning (around 6:45 am) in preparation and practice for getting up early tomorrow, the first day of school. We got ready and headed out around 8:15 am to Columbia, SC to spend the day at the zoo. It was 92 degrees today but the zoo is pretty shady and even though it was hot and a bit humid we still had a blast. Some of the highlights are as follows: feeding the Lorikeets, feeding the giraffe, watching the squirrels dumpster dive for french fries, riding the carousel, seeing the flamingos and their eggs (wish they had been hatching so we could have seen baby flamingos), watching the bears scuffle and jump in the water. We also had a fascinating time watching the naked mole rats. We've seen them before at another zoo but this exhibit was even better and we got to talk to the "naked mole rat expert" at the zoo who told us lots of fascinating things about them. For instance, did you know they are set up in a colony kind of like bees. There's a queen naked mole rat and all the others are workers. Who knew! But no matter how you look at these creatures they are just ugly. I never got a picture of them.......they were our last stop and by then I was just tired I guess. Sorry to disappoint you.

Ansley starts 3rd grade tomorrow. She's a little nervous but excited too. We can't believe she's in 3rd grade already. The years are going by too quickly! Next year will be terrible for me because Elisabeth will be starting kindergarten. I'm excited for her because she can't wait to be at the same school as Ansley but sad because once they get in school it seems like the years really fly by. I'll be posting pictures later this week of Ansley and the 1st day of school. I'll let you know how it goes!