A Week in Review (June 8-14)

A Week in Review (June 8-14)

Watched: Her, the movie. The previews had made me so excited for this movie and so when Jack fell asleep at 830 one evening, it seemed perfect. It was so disappointing for me. Nick didn't like it either. I have no idea how it rates so highly on imdb. I think with my two stink bomb choices, I've lost movie picking rights for a while. 

Read: Not much this week. I made a bit of progress on Cress, which is the third installment in the Lunar series I've been reading. I am getting a back log of books that are coming off my hold list at the library though!

Listened: To the sounds of dolphins as we circled around them. Jack thought it was super awesome and asked me to take a pic for him. They didn't turn out great, but it will work for a memory. It also was a sunset cruise so it was a great view.  Nick and Jack started goofing off on our way back and I got fun picture of them.

Made: The crazy trek down to Orange Beach, AL. It is about 900 miles. I thought it would be pretty doable since we routinely drive 600 miles to my mom's. Well those last 300 miles and not knowing the road make a world of difference. We have it scheduled to make the entire trip back on Sunday. It's going to make for a very LONG day. However, we've had an awesome time and it was totally worth it!

Felt: Hilarious as we tried to take a selfie in the ocean. Our final product didn't turn out too bad though.  Later that night we returned to the ocean and went crab hunting. One couple gave Jack a small one that they caught so he would know what to look for. He found a huge one on his own. Super creepy looking up close. He was so proud of himself.

Planned: To spend all of our water time in the ocean. But it turns out there is only so much wave crashing and sand castle building Jack and I can take.  You really see our Midwestern roots because after a good time of ocean, we both enjoy messing around in the resorts pool.  Nick totally doesn't get it. He thinks "We are at the ocean, let's play in the ocean", while Jack and I like to enjoy playing diving games, cannonballing, and practice swimming. These things just don't work well in the ocean water.

Loved: The Gulf Shores Zoo. It was so awesome that it actually gets it's own blog post HERE.  We really aren't zoo people, but you are so close to the animals and can pay extra for the "encounters" that it made it something special. 

Here are the pics for the week:

The Gulf Shores Zoo

This post is done to talk about the great time we had at the Gulf Shores Zoo.

First let me start out by saying we aren't zoo people. We have been to several and just have usually left underwhelmed. Our favorite zoo before now was the Topeka Zoo. I suppose that must mean we like small zoos where there might not be a lot of variety but things come more quickly and they are closer to you. I am sure that the enclosures aren't ideal for the animals, which leaves me with a slightly guilty feeling for prefering the small zoo. 

When discussing our ocean visit, Jack said he wanted to see a sea turtle and a crocodile. Now, knowing that neither of these were likely, I set about trying to find ways to make it happen. I found the website for the Gulf Shore Zoo and decided that Reptile Encounter would be perfect for it.  It rained Friday morning, but the storm had passed and so we headed out. We went there and because of the rain, the encounter was closed.  We almost decided to leave. But we decided to stay, paid for the lemur experience and got a cup of food. And that's when the fun began. 

We started out seeing this ugly duck. Jack tried to offer it some food, but it wasn't interested in much. 

Next up was the lion. I was still pretty underwhelmed, but Jack wanted my phone so he could snap this pic. 

Next up was a Bengal tiger who was sitting in a perfect place to see him up close. 

Next came a good set of animals who wanted the food. There was this cute llama. 

But Jack mostly loved the goat who liked who was super demanding and always seemed like he was trying to shake. 

Next there were some deer who liked food, but they didnt hold Jack's interest. 

Next we saw Charlie the Crocodile. He has been at the zoo since 1989 when he was rescued because he kept trying to take people's picnic baskets at a state park.  He wasn't moving much while we were there, but he was still a pretty amazing site to see. He is about 11 feet long. His eyes popping up from the water were pretty freaky.

Next we headed to see the black leopards. Jack was totally fascinated by these two, but I'm not sure why. The older cat did walk to us once, but there wasn't much action. 

There were several smaller monkeys in the middle with animals to feed on the outside. 

Aunt Jess, we were wondering if these were ugly enough to make your favorite animals lists. They look like should be a cousin to the tapir. 

Here is a another angle just to help you decide. 

Jack fed another burro. The girl in the enclosure was blowing bubbles at him, but he didn't care. I guess maybe he likes to play with them sometimes. 

Next up was the highlight of the zoo. I wish we would have known how awesome it was going to be so we would have paid for Nick to be in there too. Here follows a picture overload from our lemur encounter. 

We didn't walk much further and there was a baby kangaroo experience. Nick and Jack did this one. It was pretty awesome too. Here is our picture overload from that experience. 

One had just used his back legs to hop away and Jack was literally taken aback but it's power.

They had one in a pouch you could hold. He was a bit heavy and awkward for Jack. 

But Nick did well. 

Jack decided he was going to get down on their level and try walking like them. 

They also had an experience where you could play with Baby Bengal tigers, but that experience had over a month waiting  list. We were still able to see them and get only a wires cage away. 

We looped back around and took a couple more pictures, including one of the mama of the baby lemurs that we had loved on. 

As we were leaving, the male lion had came out and was walking around. He was quite the impressive beast. 

I hope you've enjoyed our picture walk through our new favorite zoo.