The ZOO!

We love animals, the outdoors, and hiking. So doesn't it just make sense that we love the zoo?! Brenda graduated, (congrats Brenda!) from ISU on Saturday. She was among the first people to walk across the stage out of the tons of other people that graduated that day. So we took the opportunity to watch her walk, then leave. We promptly went to the zoo afterwards. Ivan absolutely loved it! The Pocatello zoo is nothing fancy, not in the slightest, nor is it all that expensive. Most of the animals they have at that zoo are native species to the area. I thought it was pretty cool to see animals you could see in the wild right in that area but up close. They had a mountain lion, a bald eagle, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, buffalo, antelope, foxes, coyotes, black bears, a grizzly bear, and some other birds. Here's the rest of the story.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

Charlotte trying to stay out of the sun. 

Isn't this a great picture? Michael is really good at getting birds to look really creepy. 

Ivan absolutely loves birds! 

So much that he almost caught this one!

The infamous finger point. Michael walked past the mountain lion before with Ivan in the stroller. The lion just laid there and slept away. 

This is what the cougar did when Ivan walked past it not in the stroller.  Pounce mode. 

And the cougar followed Ivan as he walked past. 

And he stared longingly as Ivan walked away. It was probably the scariest thing ever. That cougar knew Ivan was easy prey. I never, ever, ever want to see one of these in the wild. Ever. 

Here's some more animal pictures cuz we like them.

At the entrance to the zoo there is a petting zoo. All they had in there was a bunch of goats.  But they are animals and Ivan loved them just the same. In fact, when we got there, none of the goats were outside the barn. Ivan walked over to the entrance, where the could walk into the petting area, and did a little dance he was so darn excited. He stomped his feet and even clapped a little bit. When the goats did come out, he didn't actually want to pet them, he just wanted to look at them. He really enjoyed feeding them though. And it was definitely worth the dollar in quarters we spent on goat food. He would laugh and stomp his feet when their lips touched his fingers. And he actually didn't get bit!

He just couldn't get close enough!

Ahh, the best part of an afternoon well spent.