The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans

Friday was a "down day" for Bill's squadron. We took advantage of the day, let Ivan play hooky from school, and made a 2 hour drive to "The Big Easy" - spending the day at the Audubon Zoo. It was a beautiful spring day... and down here, you have to do outdoor activities early on, as the weather is pretty much unbearable on most summer days. Today's high was already 83 degrees and humid!

Here is Ivan, with his class bear, Chocolate. It is his turn (again) to take Chocolate on all his adventures for one weekend and journal about it with pictures. Chocolate had his photo taken in the parking lot, and then guarded the van while we went to the zoo. ; )
We went with the Ellis family and the James family (minus Russ - he had to fly last minute - bummer!). Here are the moms and kids.
First animal sighting as you enter the zoo - the pretty flamingos. I learned something new - flamingos actually fly. I really didn't think they could!
The trees on the Gulf Coast are amazing. This one, in particular is every child's climbing dream. Hey, there's a monkey - oh, wait... it's MY SON. Ivan is our dare-devil... if it can be climbed, you'll find him at the top!
Our family, on a very large branch!
All of the kids had fun climbing it...
Grant and his little friend, Lily, were inseparable almost the entire day. They are very close in age and had a blast together. I thought this was cute...
The four older kids - Brooke, Ivan, Grant and Lily - had so much fun!
They spotted this little guy in the large fountain. He is so tiny and so bright green - the cutest little turtle I have ever seen.
Can you even find him? He's at the top of the picture, toward the left... he's less than 2 inches in diameter.
Mary and Lily, looking at the turtles (which were everywhere at this zoo).

The white alligator
Mary waved at all of the animals. She is at such a great age for the zoo - I love to see the wonder and joy on her face when she looks at new things - especially when they can look back! She just squeals with excitement and loved running up to the fences and peeking through. She had fun, watching the animals - we had fun, watching her!
Check out the tongue on this guy!
The animals were very cooperative with photography - the silver backed gorilla even took a moment to smile for the camera...
Pulling monkeys out of trees... ha, ha. They had this rope thing for kids to climb through. Of course, ours always end up on top!
The elephants were hiding out, but we got a glimpse...
By early afternoon, it was getting hot. The kids loved standing under the mister to keep cool. It was a very fun day, but if we go back to that area during the hot summer, we'll probably opt to be indoors at the aquarium!