Lions, and Tigers, and Bears......

.....Oh My! :) We finally got to go visit the Omaha Zoo in Nebraska. We had heard from so many people that we should go check it out because it is amazing. In fact they also told us to make a weekend out of it because it is so large it is hard to see it all in one day. We thought during the summer to go up there but we decided to go camping instead. I am glad we did because our church has been doing activities all summer and one of them was to visit this zoo. So we signed right up for that event. The first 30 people to sign up got to ride on the church bus up there. We made it on the list and I was excited considering we didn't have to pay for gas or put miles on our car. It is about a 2 hour drive up there. The catch was we had to arrive at the church on a Saturday at 7:00 a.m. Well if you know the Gipsons, you know that we wait for the sun to come up, way up, before we rise out of our bed. Thankfully though, out of excitement I didn't have much of a problem getting up at 5:30 and getting ready, nor did Ricky. You read that correctly, nor did Ricky! :)

So we arrived at the Zoo and our Pastor gave the agenda for the day and said it would be impossible to try to all stay together. So everyone could just go where ever they wanted with no agenda. So we all get our tickets and stand outside the gate until they opened. Ricky and I were already overwhelmed because we really didn't know what to see first. So we headed to the Jungle they have there. A lot of the exhibits are indoors and are themed, and are amazing! Like you are really there and some animals are free to roam. We headed to the Jungle and were amazed right when we walked in. There are several levels and it looks like a real Jungle. We were taking our time walking around it and look across the way and see our Pastor and his family. We ended up catching up with them a few minuets later. I am so thankful that we did because they knew their way around the zoo. We hung out with them the rest of the day. I am glad we did because we got to know them a little better and they are a lot of fun! Pastor Micah was good about keeping us moving along because we were trying to see the whole zoo in one day.

We took about a 30 min. lunch break with everyone from church back on our bus around noon. Great idea to bring our own lunches and save money! After lunch we headed back in the zoo and saw amazingly the rest of the zoo! We were there from 9-5 and saw the whole place and that was almost in a whirlwind, not many breaks and we kept moving. I'm glad we did so that Ricky and I could take it all in and see it all. Now the next time we go back we can take more time and see more of our favorites. Other than an indoor jungle, they have the largest indoor desert exhibit, a butterfly exhibit, and an aquarium exhibit. Those are all the indoor things, but there are still of animals outdoor to see. So needless to say we had a blast and were exhausted when we got back home later that night! I was in the bed falling asleep at 10 p.m.

I leave you with some pictures from the day....

This is from the butterfly exhibit, these blue ones were flying really close and almost landed on me, I was hoping one would but it never happened.

Between him and me just a couple of inches of glass. I could have sat there all day watching him.

This was in the indoor jungle part. The bridge was actually a little scary because it wobbled a lot and there were waterfall on either side of you.

Love ya,
Ashley