On the road home from HU...

We stopped in Tyler, Texas on the way home. To our surprise, it was a delightful town and we are excited to go back this fall! Our day began at the zoo. It was a WONDERFUL smaller zoo. The lay-out was very user-friendly, zookeepers interactive and animals that were beautiful and so close! This is Jacob and Jason looking at the African savannah. And our family...a RARE photo of all 4 of us looking at the camera! :)
Near the elephants, there was a concrete elephant footprint. 6 of our feet fit into one elephant foot!
Of course, we had to take a photo of Momma and the flamingos! Jason even reached over the rope and got a real flamingo feather. This variety was called "Lesser Flamingo." They were a little smaller in stature and were more pink.
The Savannah was laid out so that when on ground-level it looked like one huge savannah with all the animals roaming free. In actuality, there were moats dug between the animals, but it still felt more "real" than "caged." The male lion was looking at us until the camera clicked!
My 3 favorite boys!
Jason and Jacob...our cheeseball!
Kim and Rylan...so sweet!
The white tigers were so beautiful. I've never seen one until here. This one sat still for a long time as we gawked over it!
Then we walked into the highlight of the Zoo...the Wild Bird Walkabout! It was a small house that was all screened-in and full of small birds!
You paid $1.00 for a popsicle stick with bird seed hot-glued to it. (I know it was not really hot glue for toxic reasons, but that's what it looked like!) Then you got to feed the birds!
It reminded me of my favorite old Disney movie, Mary Poppins, and when she sang "Feed the birds - tuppins a day...tuppins...tuppins..."
When the birds first landed on the sticks, it totally freaked out the boys. But they got used to it and loved the birds.
Squealing Rylan tried to stab some birds too!
Calm Jacob stood fairly still.
After lunch at Rudy's BBQ and a nap, we headed to the famous Tyler Rose Garden. In a word - beautiful. I don't even know how many kinds of roses they have...hundreds. They were not all blooming, but it was still beautiful!
This was the only pic of them smelling the roses! Apparently, when you are 2 the Rose Garden was just a huge park to run wild in!!!
After supper at Traditions, we stopped at the Children's Park for real play time. It had several statues and quotes around the park. This was my favorite!