"The zoo is a good place to poo." --Jane

Amidst the prolonged insanity of moving, it seemed like quite a good idea to get a breath of fresh air and spend a day at the Rio Grande Zoo on our last day in the hotel. Thank you, Mom, for making this free adventure possible. Memberships are a fabulous early Christmas present.

I was highly, highly impressed with the zoo. There is quite a variety of animals, and they were largely active. It was fun to see them up and about and doing things. We took full advantage of our day and I have the pictures to prove it.

My favorite exhibit of the day was the first to greet us when we entered the zoo: flamingos!

I don't think I've ever actually seen a pink flamingo in real life, let alone dozens all at once. So cool.

Chris thought the enormous catfish was pretty cool. I thought it looked gross.

There was a stingray in this tank that kept swimming back and forth across the glass. I had Jane sit down so I could take her picture with it, but she kept freaking out every time it moved.

I attempted Ben's picture instead, but he kept getting distracted and turning around.

So I attempted Megan's picture. She absolutely didn't care about the stingray.

Speaking of gross (we were, a few pictures ago, remember?), we watched this little circle of life presentation in the Reptiles and Amphibians house.

And by we I mean Chris. I continued on because I really thought it was gross.

This tank was full of piranhas. Jane only cared about the little tiny snails sticking to the inside of the glass.

A few more reptiles and amphibians...

Apparently the bush is just as exciting as the animals?

Capybara. World's largest rodent. Insert Princess Bride quotes here.

Lunch break!

Jane wants me to post that this is her picture saying "Welcome to Albuquerque" --or something like that. It's been a few [crazy] days since we went, and I don't accurately recall exactly what she said. My apologies.

We took a ride on the train. While we waited for our turn, we played in this random huge mosiac throne. Because that totally makes sense to have at a zoo.

Mind the Gap!!!

The train was fun, but I spent most of my time preventing Ben from catapulting himself off the side and therefore did not take any pictures.

Post-train: hippopotamus. Or hippopotami. I've never seen a hippopotamus actually move. This one not only walked into the water,

but it swam directly to the bridge where we were standing,

and then pooped a whole bunch, swirled it all around with its tail, and promptly swam away. It was like it was mocking us. Ha.

Gorillas. Most hilarious moment of the entire day.

Not talking about Jane and Chris, by the way.

There were these two gorillas sitting next to the glass. One appeared old and bored. The other appeared young and annoyed.

If you walked up just right, it would jump up and hit the glass.

As expected, Jane was afraid of it. But she also thought it was really funny to push Megan and/or Ben up to the glass instead of going herself.

To make the story even better, Chris shot a video. Enjoy.

Giraffes.

Not giraffes.

Last but not least, the polar bears.

We were present for the afternoon snack. Pretty fun to watch.

Chris shot a video of this, too. Just for a heads up, it's about five minutes long and does not contain any footage of our children. But it's still cool.

By the end of the day, we were all tired. Ben was the smart one who fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.

In response to the various inquiries I've received during our temporary internet hiatus, we're surviving. Not quite past the surviving stage yet with our tiny-apartment culture shock, but we're progressing. Greater update on that soon.