Goat love

So we went to the Atlanta Zoo on Wednesday, a) because I woke up and decided that it would be fun and, b) we have a membership, of which we have not taken full advantage. It did happen to be the birthday week of Mei Lan, the one year old panda born last September here in Atlanta, although that was not our main motivation for going. Before I write any more though, I feel I must make a comment about the Atlanta Zoo. Basically, I think it stinks. Having grown up in St. Louis, I am a complete museum, zoo, and all other possible cultural attraction snob. The fact that I regularly frequented an art museum whose building's beauty competed with the art work within makes me so particular. St. Louis is an incredible town in which to "get cultured" and I am so thankful for the many opportunities that I had to browse wonderful collections at my leisure. Oh, and for FREE! That being said, we can still go to the Atlanta Zoo and have a good time. In fact, because it is so close to our house and so small, frequent short trips are actually very simple and more apt to happen than if it was a huge zoo that was far away and cost a fortune. Don't get me wrong, this zoo does cost a fortune (when compared to FREE) but the family pass makes your investment work for you.
A fun part of our experience at the zoo was the chance for Aidan to show off all that he learned from attending Zoo Camp this past summer. I was amazed at how well he knew the layout of the zoo and he led us straight to the panda exhibit, as well as to the reptile house. Every once in awhile he would share some tidbit of information about a particular animal we were observing and that proved to be very charming. Those of you that know Aidan can appreciate the fact that although it is true that he knows quite a lot of things, he also has a tendency to speak of things as fact when, in actuality, he has just made up what he is explaining. I suppose that "made up" isn't quite fair, because often, you can see the relationships between his fact and fiction speeches. Regardless, it is an endearing trait, for now at least.
One of the main reasons that I was excited to go to the zoo was for the goats and sheep in the children's section. I was in desperate need of a "goat fix" and the boys had to beg me to leave the exhibit so that they could see the other animals in the zoo. I was excited about the fact that I was able to correctly identify the three breeds of goats that were there. I guess I have learned something from my Goats and Goatkeeping book! That is a Boer goat in the picture above, in case you were wondering. I really do love goats and being around them made me so happy and they were worth the trip for me.