An Evening Visit to the Zoo....

This past Tuesday evening (August 31), we went to the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law's family (Joel, Amber, Grace, Natalie, and Maddie).

I never actually realized the zoo was open in the evenings...I guess I never paid attention. But, throughout the summer, the zoo is open until 8:30 on Tuesday evenings. This past Tuesday was the last Tuesday for being open late until next year.

First, we all arrived and got situated.

I don't know if you remember THIS POST where I mentioned that Luke really LOVES Marc's hats. Well, he also has taken to really liking his Papa's hats (my dad). So, throughout most of this zoo visit, Luke sat in the wagon and played with hats.





And, before I go on any further...this is basically how he saw our little niece, Maddie (two months old now), for most of the evening.



Since the "petting zoo area" closes even earlier than the rest of the zoo, we went there first.

But, of course, with kids, we all must stop to feed the fish on the way to the petting zoo.





Once at the petting zoo area, Luke did once again manage to get out of the wagon to be with Uncle Joel ("Uh-Joo" in "Luke-Speak") for a bit. You'll notice the hats did not leave Luke's head, though.





Our nieces, Grace and Natalie, feeding goats with my dad....



Marc enjoyed the guinea hog....



For this reason (if you can read the sign and know Marc well, you'll know why)....



Because the guinea hog is used to produce BACON -- one of Marc's favorites.

Our fun fact for the evening involved this animal...the camel...



If you can't read this sign, here's why we were amazed...This camel can drink up to 30 gallons of water in less than 13 minutes...ASTONISHING, I say. Only a genius like our One True God could come up with an animal like that.



We then ate supper at the zoo....This is the only pic I got -- of course, it was our son.



We saw giraffes. Unfortunately, they had already been moved in for the evening.



A cool looking and colorful stork (one I'd never noticed during one of the many visits I've made to this zoo)....



The tiger exhibit....And, just so you know, Luke did manage to put the hats down for just a brief moment at this point. He still had his sunglasses in his hand, though, to pose with his Papa.





And, one of the H.U.G.E. advantages to living in Kansas is the sunsets. This particular evening, there was a great one. Had there not been a few trees in the way at the zoo, ahhhhhh -- it would've been even better.



By this point, it was nearing time to go. We did a stop at the leopard.



And then, the ultimate happened....

We were walking toward the exit of the zoo. Luke was still playing with the hats from the wagon.

At one point, my dad noticed that one hat (his in particular) was no longer with Luke. We all turned around and noticed in the background a hat on the ground. Marc ran back to get the "dropped" hat (and we truly know Luke did not do this on purpose).

Marc gives it back to Luke, and Luke puts it on his head. Soon, one of us (I don't remember who) took it quickly off of Luke's head. For, this poor hat, when Luke dropped it, had been dropped in goose poop.

It was quite lovely, and we're fairly certain none got on Luke.



At the same time of this said "poop on the hat incident," our niece, Natalie, started crying. She had fallen.

Fortunately, she was O.K., but besides the fact that the zoo was closing 5 minutes later, I think these incidents signaled a time to go.

So, we headed out.

Grace and Natalie, along with their Grandma, had to look in the gift shop (fortunately, Luke has yet to figure out the "advantages" of a gift shop -- which is fine by us right now).

So, some of us hung out just by the exit while the girls "shopped."

Even though it was late and truly we were needing to get Luke home, I did manage to snap my new favorite photo of Luke -- which is currently my Facebook profile pic.