Freakin' awesome weekend that is! Saturday was a gorgeous day and we spent a good few hours outdoors hiking and playing in the woods. Sunday was cold (I'm ready for winter to be over with), but we still went to the Blank Park Zoo for our behind-the-scenes of the new giraffe barn! We got up close and too personal for Harrison, with the giraffes!
These hiking boots got some action for the first time since June when we were in Big Sky, Montana! We've been hiking around Central Iowa, but those hikes haven't required anything more than my tennis shoes. It felt so good to get in nearly four miles of walking/hiking, even if it was on a flat terrain.
We figured any regular hiking trail would be extremely muddy so we chose to walk on a paved bike path. Of course, we went off the trail a bit to explore in the woods, but mostly we walked on the trail and in Water Works Park.
Checking out the ice on the river. The minis had never seen an ice jam before and got a quick science lesson.
We also got to see a beaver's dam. While we've seen these many times, it's still cool for all of us.
Two "of the coolest things on this hike," according to the minis: the horse boarding place and a train going by on the tracks while we walked next to it.
We tried Nacho Tequilas for the first time. We're kind of Mexican food snobs and I have to say, we were impressed with this place! Their margaritas were excellent, food was fantastic, and they had decent vegetarian options. I love the fact that they're on GrubHub too! That will come in handy for a mid-day pick me up during the week!
Sunday we relaxed with bagels in the morning and spent the afternoon at the zoo!
We saw the lion cubs for the first time! They were adorable. If it wasn't so cold outside, we could have watched them all afternoon.
Listening to the lion roar.
Elizabeth spied the two vultures together: "oh, are they best friends?"
The giraffe tour was the highlight of our weekend! The giraffe zoo keeper told us all about their giraffes at the zoo, how they train they, and we even got to feed them (a lot!). The giraffes were VERY interested in us (as you can see), but the middle mini had a complete meltdown when a giraffe went after his hair in hopes for a treat. The tour came to an end shortly thereafter.
My sister (also known as Aunt Jenny) hit this Christmas present out of the park. I prefer the minis to get experiences for Christmas rather than toys. This was a fantastic gift!
This one almost got my hair!
This was a great middle of winter pick-me/us-up! Although, with the taste of warm weather lately, I'm more than ready for spring to get here. We've got some pretty exciting weekends coming up that will keep us busy right until we leave on our spring break adventure! We can't wait!