Our Saturday Adventures with Animals

I have been telling Luke all week long that we would be seeing some farm animals at the Rodeo fairgrounds this weekend. We talked about the cows, pigs, horses, chickens and sheep. Actually, I don't know who was looking more forward to the trip--me or him. I love festivals! So, it's a good thing that Austin has a lot of them. One of my favorite websites/blogs that I visit regularly is freefuninaustin.com. It's a great site for listings of all of the fun activities going on around town (including festivals) and coupons/listings for great deals on entertainment and food. What's not to love?

On Saturday, I just couldn't wait for Luke to arise from his morning nap so we could go to the rodeo and see the animals, hear some live music and eat some great BBQ and fair food. We decided to check the rodeo website before leaving and we saw that it would cost us $24 to get in!!!! That's $7 admission each and then $10 for parking--OUCH! Then, I remembered that I had purchased a deal for the Austin Zoo a month ago that I discovered when browsing the freefuninaustin.com site. Drew and I have visited this zoo before. Drew's opinion is that it should be called "Austin Animal Rehab" instead of a Zoo, but I think it is neat. Yes, there are Schizophrenic monkeys that were rescued from research labs, but it has such a down-home family feel. Since we were getting in for half price (because of the deal I purchased), he was willing to go as a family. Luke loved it!

I'm not sure the animals loved that Luke was there though.

At this zoo, you can get so close to the animals.  One of Luke's favorite things to do was chase the roosters that freely roamed the zoo.

Here is one of the beautiful roosters

Here is the rooster escaping Luke's quick pursuit.

 Besides being able to get so close to the animals, I love the scenery at this zoo.  It is located at the top of a hill.   You can even take a train ride which takes you through the hills and some nice scenery.  But, there were way too many people in line for the train, so we opted not to take the ride this time. 

We finished our visit off with some snow cones and then headed back to the car.

Later that day, we took a walk in our neighborhood, which included a visit to the duck pond.  Luke loves feeding the ducks.  He always decides that he needs to eat whatever we are feeding the ducks as well.  It usually plays out like this:  I throw a piece of bread to the ducks...he asks for a piece of bread...I give it to him thinking he also wants to throw a piece to the ducks...he eats it.  This is the case regardless of how stale the bread is that we are feeding the ducks.

Can I please have a piece mommy?

There were some adorable little ducklings swimming around in the pond.

Luke loved this bridge.

He ran back...and forth...and back..and forth over it!  Daddy was such a good sport as always!

So, although we didn't make it to the rodeo, we accomplished our goal of seeing many animals!  And Luke loved every minute of it!