zoo

‘Zoo’- LO… lions, tigers, and something else, oh my!

November 28, 2012

Ah, as the temperature dips the craftiness increases. It’s nice to kill a whole night r even day by scrapbooking without feeling guilty about missing a great day outside. Clearly, I’m not the only one who feels this way as the ever fabulous Cathy Zielske tweeted this awesome meme. It’s a rif on Game of Thrones and scrapbooking…

I just love this. It totally made my day when I saw this. And yes, it reminded me to order more adhesive.

So getting back in gear with scrapbooking has been a lot of fun. I’ve really been trying to use products I have not used before or in a long time or products in ways I have not used before. It helps me stretch my imagine and use my stash.

My stash of paper and alphas has been getting a tad extreme so be prepared to see layouts using a lot of them as I try to use them creatively. In this case I used 5 pieces of paper to layer on a solid cardstock. The grey and white pieces that look hand drawn were actually patterned rectangles on a piece of patterned paper that I individually cut out, so I guess that brings the papers up to 6 kinds. I finished up a pack of stickers I had as we well as used new brads ad other 3d embellishments. My favorite thing I that I used are the 4 different kinds of Mini Market Alphas that I used to label each photo. I seriously love this alphas from October Afternoon.

left side page…

right side page…

GIRAFFES!!!!!! {cheyenne mountain zoo}

June 13, 2012

Giraffes!!!

When I went to visit Amanda back in early May one of the only things we planned was to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. (We did not plan Sunday night’s ER visit for a certain 2yr old who fell & but through the tip of his tongue.) I truly have a love hate relationship with zoos… I love that I get to see the amazing animals! I hate that I can’t take them home with me! So when she previously told me about the giraffes and how you can feed them I knew that I would love it. Err, I mean, I knew the kids would obviously want to go again and I would helplessly follow them around…

So armed with bubble teas, Amanda and I took the kiddos to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Saturday morning. Even for early morning in May I was shocked at how hot it was. I was really thankful we stopped for the bubble teas. Also, thankful the top was on securely when Benjamin accidentally knocked it out of the wagon. Anyway… We parked, paid the admission ($17.25 for an adult), and were on our way to having a great time.

For just $2 you get veggies to hand-feed the giraffes! This is the largest herd at any zoo with 20 giraffes, so this is the big attraction. They were eager, and yet very polite, to get fed. They used their tongues to grab the food from our hands. Did you know that their tongues are 18-21″ long with the last 6″ of it purplish-black. Crazy! If you can’t make it to see the giraffes in person you can atleast check them out on the Giraffe Cam!!!

These are such beautiful knobby animals!

After the giraffe feeding we continued on getting to see monkeys, boa constrictor, lizards, moose, !

There was a farm area that had goats, chickens and bunnies. These 2 were an adorable pair. The small grey one was so trying to be so cuddying with the big white one (I’m assuming femal because of that massive dewlap) by wiggling under her.

We also visited the reptile house were I got to touch a boa constrictor, check out some small lizards, and several turtles.

The tiger was hard to spot at first. (Thank you zoom!)

They boys had a great time. L1 even got to ride on a little choo-choo train, B opted out. And I needed some baby fix so held L2 for most of the zoo trip resulting in jello arms but it was all worth it with him conked out in my arms under his sun hat. Of course after the zoo trip we asked the boys their favorite part & they announced seeing the hippos…. we did not see hippos that day.

There was a bear enclosure with a very sleepy bear lounging around. The fish were more entertaining to the kids.

The zoo was under construction but was still very accessible and very clean. The areas under construction were fairly limited so it did not feel like we were missing too much. We missed out on the African Elephants but at least they are getting a new home, and that is all that matters. I was really impressed by this zoo. (Much better than when I visited Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.) If you are in Colorado Springs then I suggest that you visit the zoo and see their 550 animals representing 119 species.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Road

Colorado Springs, CO 80906

719.633.9925

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Top Priorities

May 9, 2012

What happens when 2 food bloggers hang out for 5 days?

Do they cook a ton? Do they develop recipes? Do they blog a lot?

No! They eat out at restaurants and get take out pizza, drink margaritas and eat chips and salsa for cinco de mayo, go to the zoo and Ikea, watch a lot of Top Chef and other reality TV, and take kids to the ER (well, only once).

Most importantly, they take pictures of their glittery shoes!!!

I really had an amazing time with Amanda having fun, relaxing, and playing around with 3 adorable kiddos.

The shoes I’m wearing (I have the tattoo) are from Mix No 6. in Barbie Glitter Pump. I love them as they are so comfortable and glittery!

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5.4-8: Vacation Weekend Recap

May 9, 2012

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Out of Africa

July 26, 2009

Yesterdays trip to the zoo was interesting. I had not been to the Franklin Park Zoo in a few years and the last time I went I was chasing after an 18 month old so I was not really take it in. Emily and I decided to go since there has been a big stink lately about the economy hitting the zoo’s state funding. The zoo director played dirty by going public and crying out about the drastic cut in budget by saying the zoo might have to close and as a result euthanize animals. Needless to say, Governor Patrick has been attacked for putting the zoo in such as hard place and the zoo has been chastised for saying it would euthanize animals. (Lineham did come back and say that he was incorrect about euthanizing the animals).

Well, we took this as an opportunity to fork over $13 each to visit the struggling zoo. I use struggling nicely. As a designer, it was really hard to embrace a place that uses laminated sheets of paper tacked up to posts telling people that the Andean Condor saying that the bird was born in the 50’s and acquired by the zoo in the early 90’s (I forgot the exact dates). A zoo is an education place that is to teach everyone about the animals. Did you know that the condor is the largest flying land bird in the Western Hemisphere? No? Well, you would not have known that about the condor going to the zoo for it was not posted on the 1 sign of info about them (I looked it up the the nifty Internet).

I know that I am being really harsh about the zoo and its appearance now, especially when it is facing budget cuts. It just makes me wonder if others even notice what the zoo is lacking or they just view it as a place for them to take their kids to kill a few hours on a Saturday morning? Thoughts?

Enough ranting…

They had quite a few zebras that were in two parts of the zoo. I love their short manes…. mohawks!

We did get to see the lion quite a bit and even hear him roar. He sounded more like the cowardly lion than the ling of the jungle. Still really cute. Check out my video.

Moving along the ill-marked paths we came across two hornbills. We watched them for awhile and one became so comfortable with us there that he? dug up a chunk of dirt and grass, walked over to the enclosure fence and put it down to give to us. Well give in the sense that we were still two feet away from it. Then it stuck its beak out of the fence as far as it could and sat there for awhile watching us.

We also saw flamingos, kangaroos, a tiger, giraffes, butterflies, and more.

Post zoo visit we walked back to my house- 5.5 miles. Sweet.

All in all I know I will go back but I just hope that they get the funding they deserve and outfit the zoo to properly house their animals and educate the public.