Off-track fun!

Yes, I'm still trying to catch up on some events that happened back in October! Here are some pictures from a trip to Tracy Aviary and Hogle Zoo while the kids were off-track.

October 4th
My parents & sister met us at Tracy Aviary. We walked around a little, ate some sack lunches that we had brought and then saw the rest of the aviary.

This toucan loved posing for the cameras.

They have some coin operated machines there where you can put in a quarter and get a handful of food to feed the birds. The kids loved feeding them all and kept looking around on the ground for pieces that had been dropped along the path. In this picture Kitty is trying to throw food to the ducks because she was too short to reach over the railing.

These two pelicans kept dipping their beaks under the water and opening them like they were trying to get some food in the water (even though we couldn't see anything). It was neat to watch this because the skin under their lower beak would expand with the weight from the water (see the one on the right).

After the aviary I took the kids over to Liberty Park to play before we went home. In this picture Kitty is trying to climb the rock-climbing wall. Before we left she was able to do it without help.

October 11th
A week later we went to Hogle Zoo with my parents. It was beautiful weather and we saw a few animals that we haven't seen before there.

This is a rare white alligator that is on loan from the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, LA. It is not an albino, but is an alligator with a rare genetic mutation that causes white skin & blue eyes. There are only 10 known white alligators in the world. Apparently they can't survive in the wild because they can't hide or blend in to their surroundings and they sunburn easily.

This is the first time that I have ever seen penguins at this zoo. Every time we go they are not out so I was beginning to wonder if they really had any or not. When we first got to the penguin exhibit they were all in the water but then they quickly got out and started following one another to the other side of the enclosure. It was really cute watching them try and hop up and down the rocks along the edge.

It is very hard trying to get all 4 kids to look at the camera & smile at the same time (this is the closest I got this day).

This animal is called a bat-eared fox. There were 2 of them and Kitty loved watching them because they kept coming over to the window right where she was.

When we were getting ready to leave the zoo, we walked by the duck ponds and just as we were walking through there was a zoo worker who was feeding 2 loaves of bread to the birds. He handed out pieces to the kids and they had a blast breaking off pieces and feeding it to the ducks & swans.