HEY, MR. ELEPHANT!

Last weekend we packed up the car and headed to the Asheboro Zoo early Saturday morning.  We met our cousins there and had a blast cruising around and seeing the animals.  Finally, we found a place with enough stimulation to keep Eli busy!  :)  The protocol for seeing each animal never varied; Eli would run up to the fence or divider and yell, "Hey, Mr. Elephant!" or "Hey, Mr. Lion!"  Then he would turn to us and ask, "What's he doing?"  

I think one of the funnest parts of the day for him was watching the adults have to repeated shoo away the geese that kept approaching us in the picnic area trying to get at our food.  The kids thought it was the height of hilarity, their moms and dads running, clapping, and howling to get the geese to scram.  We must guard our pimento cheese with our lives!

The other thing that he really loved doing was running over the big floor vents in the aviary, which is reflected in the second photo above.  They were like giant fans under the floor blowing up and they were spaced out all over the aviary.  Of course Eli looked at some birds but then it became all about standing on a fan and running to the next one.  Look at the joy on that kid's face.  Good stuff.