Birds of a Feather and One Large Cat

Here are some pictures of our trip to the DC Zoo.

This picture could be titled, "Luke's Favorites at Age 5." Cheetah? Check. Eagle on his shirt? Hard to see in the picture, but check. If only there was a T-Rex peeking out from one of those trees, it would be his dream come true.

And this picture would simply be called, "Weston." I told him to do something he didn't want to do, so he just hid his face behind the Eagle and pretended not to hear me. Because of course he did.

And as long as we're naming pictures, this one would be called, "Elusive: The Search For A Group Picture." There I am, grinning away for the camera and one kid is making a Calvin face and the other is licking the eagle's head. The eagle is not amused.

This peacock was not the slightest bit bothered by our loud, rowdy selves. Weston wanted to bring it home with us. He almost tackled the next set of people who went to go look at it because, "That's our peacock! They need to get their own peacock because that peacock is OURS!" Luckily, I have become quite proficient at catching that child midair as he heads off to attack some unsuspecting stranger over some imagined slight. (Why is Luke making the weirdest faces in this set of pictures?)

 

This is the Greater Rhea. I wanted to bring it home. It was way back in its shelter when Weston bumped his head on a railing near the fence and it came all the way out in the hot sun to check on him when he started wailing. He was every bit as suspicious of the Greater Rhea as he had been of the large fish in the aquarium, so he refused to look at the camera while that bird was anywhere near him.

 

Luke and I thought this was the funniest sign ever. The aggressive crane is actually back there, but hard to see. It ran around with its wings outstretched and it really did look pretty aggressive. For about an hour after seeing this crane, Luke pretended that he was an aggressive crane and Weston and my step-father were things that aggressive cranes ate.