The Traumatic Zoo Trip

Yesterday was supposed to be Randle's first day of work, but because it was a holiday it was delayed until today. Natalie was out of school, so we took a family trip to the Birmingham Zoo. The girls had a lot of fun. We got to pet the sheep and goats, as well as vote for the President of the Zoo. Natalie and Harley voted for the Lion, Kwanza, I voted for the Macaw, Nut Nut, and Randle voted for the Beaver, June. I am calling tomorrow to find out who won. The first thing we did was go to the Sea Lion feeding. It was very lame. The people had the sea lions do a couple of tricks, but they didn't explain anything to the kids. The show at the Fort Wayne Zoo is much better. After that we went to the Laurakeet exhibit. We paid $1.50 for a little cup of nectar for the girls to feed the birds. Randle only had $2 so he got 2 cups for the girls to split it.. Before he could even pour a little into the second cup 2 birds had landed on him. He finally got it poured an then handed the cup to Natalie. She jumped when the first bird landed on her, but soon got comfortable with it. Harley decided she didn't want Randle to let go of the cup. She finally realized it was safe, and took the cup. About the time she took the cup a bird snatched it from her. I got the cup back and she got to hold it again. She hadn't had the cup very long and a bird landed on her head. She almost threw the cup at Randle, and dropped to the ground. She stayed in a squatting position laughing s hard as I have ever seen her. I got photos, but wish I could have taped her laugh. It was great! It was definitely the best $1.50 we have ever spent!! The zoo has this really cool section called Alabama Wild. 　It is a section of the zoo filled with animals found throughout Alabama, hence the name,. At the end of the trail there is a creek and we could hear some frogs. I got the girls to stand really still and listen.Just as we all turned and started walking off Harley started screaming and dancing around. Randle and I didn't know what was going on. We though she had been stung by something, all we could tell was it was something in her jeans. I finally got her to speak where we could understand and we found out that she was saying that a frog had jumped in her pants leg. Well, as much as we tried not to, we laughed. Randle picked her up and I pulled at her pants leg　There was nothing there. I told her that her pants leg was empty, but she wouldn't believe me. Randle picked her back up and I ran my arm as far up her jeans as I could but she still claimed it was there. I finally got her to agree that it was her jacket that she had tied around her waist that had bumped her, but then she felt it again and freaked out on me. She walked the rest of the way to the entrance bent at her waist holding the knee of her pants as if she were trying to keep something in that one spot. We finally get to the bathroom,and I put her on the changing table and pull her jeans down to show her nothing was there. Then she calmed down and when we got to the van she decided it must have been the seam on her jeans. I haven't laughed so hard in a very long time. While she was scared to death at first once she realized she was safe, she even laughed. We ended the day at the zoo and went to dinner at a Thai restaurant. Natalie really liked it, but Harley would still rather have McDonalds. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of the frog incident, but I will add Laurakeet pictures tomorrow when I update with who won the Zoo President election!