The Animal Whisperer

Life has gotten away from me and I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged about some of it! 

Rewind to President's Day weekend. With an extra day of family fun to enjoy, we met up with friends Tamara and Ross, as well as their daughter Elsa, for a trip to the Stone Zoo. While the weather had been great all weekend, it was a bit more frigid that day then any of us realized. The clock was counting down to closing time and we all made a quick, cold trip around to see the animals.

Mike and I arrived a few minutes before the rest of the gang and since time was limited, we went to visit the bears while we waited for our friends to join us. On the way in, I had given Dylan a veggie straw (our new favorite "chip" type snack) and then another a few minutes later. Apparently, he hadn't eaten either one of them and was holding one in each hand. When we got to the bear exhibit, he hopped out of his stroller for a closer look....and the bear came right up to him for a closer smell of his snack! 

The bear followed him back and forth while the rest of the crowds watched in awe at the interaction. Being the sweet boy that he is, when we told him the bear wanted his snack, he held it up to share with him. That thick glass got in the way though! After a while, Dylan determined the sharing wasn't going to happen and he was indeed hungry, so he gobbled up the snack while the bear watched and licked his chops.

After that we headed back to the gate to meet up with the Morrow family. Elsa was bundled up and they were ready to see some animals with us. We wandered around the zoo, seeing what we could see, while we talked and caught up with each other's lives. The highlight of what we saw was the beautiful snow leopard who was pacing around his enclosure and let us see him up close and in action.

Tamara, Elsa, snow leopared, Mike and Dylan

After a quick stop by Mike's parents, who live nearby, to say hi and warm up poor Dylan's frozen little hands (he didn't have his gloves and would not let me be successful in my repeated attempts to warm them), we went over to the Morrow's for dinner. Good times were had by all. We snapped the below pic and we just love the look on little Elsa's face here!

And on a trip that Mike and Dylan took to our Franklin Park zoo just this week, Dylan had a fun interaction with a cute lemur.

Dylan sure does seem to have a way with animals, doesn't he? I suppose with two animal loving parents, it's in his genes but even I'm shocked at what a connection he seems to have to wildlife sometimes! My own little animal whisperer!