Day 1446. Sammy again cried a few times during the night, and at 2 am Emmy had a fit, when he didn't know when his pillow was, and hit his brother lying on the same mattress, waking him up, so that Sammy was also crying. And that woke Tammy up. Both Tammy and Emmy then moved to our bed for the rest of the night. Sammy was up really early again, but fell asleep one more time. He was still up early, when he was up for good. Eventually everyone was up, and Randy took them upstairs for breakfast. I then went upstairs as well to have something to eat. And at 8:15 we left the house on time.
We had just over 75 minutes of driving ahead of us to get to the Colorado Springs zoo, a zoo in the mountains, and fourth-best in the country. We got there just after 9:30 and unloaded the wheelchair for Sammy, then walked to the entrance. We showed them our pre-purchased tickets and got stamps on our hands, then walked in. We were given tokens to put into machines to support helping those animals, and the kids enjoyed putting them in. Then we continued.
The first animals we got to were the giraffes. There was quite a lot of them, and people could feed them. Randy picked up lettuce off the floor so our kids could feed them. Emmy was too scared, but Tammy did it. Sammy was a little scared. Then we walked on, passed some monkeys and birds, and reached the elephants. We also saw a rhino there. We continued walking and got to a WWII plane that you could climb into. There was also a rhino statue that sprayed water all over the place ever so often, which the kids enjoyed.
We continued walking, passed a lizard, and reached the Australian region. Right in the beginning there was a house full of budgies. You could get an icecream stick with millet stuck to it on one end to hold it out to the birds, and they would eat from it. I had both Emmy and Tammy on my shoulders so they could feed them, but Emmy was scared again.
Back outside, there were wallabies (small kangaroos) out free, and we saw one that was accessible, but it was too scared to come all the way to the humans. We walked on and finally found two alligators. We hadn't seen any in Vienna, which had been really disappointing to Emmy. There was also a statute that they enjoyed climbing up on. Next we saw a bear kangaroo, and then we reached the leopards. There were two baby leopards that some people were feeding and playing with. And then their mama jumped right into my picture.
We walked on to find the bears, and did see one that was just sitting down and sleeping. We also saw a bunch of mountain lions. Then we reached the area, where the restaurants were, and it was already 1:30, so high time to eat. The kids had already been eating chips and cookies and squiezies, but I was really hungry. We heard that the brisket at the one place was very good, so we stayed right there. The line was pretty long, so it took a while to get my order in, and then we had to wait for the food to be ready. It was a long wait time, but Tammy and Emmy did not want to eat, and Sammy didn't eat much either. We thoroughly enjoyed the good meat. Then it was time to move on. It was late, but we still had one part of the zoo left to visit.
The kids were enjoying the fans set up in many places that were blowing water to cool people off. They would always stand in front of them to get wet and get cooled off. The next animals we reached were the goats that you could pet. We quickly went in, as they were kicking everybody out as it was feeding time. Our kids got to pet them quickly before having to leave. One goat had gone to the top of the bridge, where she'd make a wheel turn to make the food come up, which was pretty impressive.
We reached the last part of the zoo, saw fish and a seagull, then guinea pigs before reaching the penguins. You could see them swim under the water. Next we saw the hippos. There was a big mama one and a small baby one, and together they dove and then came back up again. We walked on and reached the gorillas. One was sitting right by the window eating lettuce, which was pretty cool, to be that close to watch him. There were some other monkeys as well, like orang utans, then we turned around to make our way to the exit. Once out, we had someone take our picture by the sign near the entrance. Then we walked to the car and drove off. It was already 2:40 pm; we had spent 5 hours at the zoo.
It really was nap time for them, but we had decided to stop at "Focus on the Family" on the way home. We had heard that they had a great playground, and the kids had beena asking to go to a playground. Plus we were interested in seeing their facilities. It was over half an hour away, but with a gas station stop it was closer to 45 minutes. We let them play with their tablets instead of sleeping in the car, thinking they could sleep after the playground.
We got there just before 3:30 pm and went into the visitors' center. There was a huge slide, but our kids were still too short and were not allowed to go down together with us. So we went on to the playground. The kids were all excited and started playing right away. Then we walked around to see what else they had. Everything was painted with themes of their show that we don't know. We found a room for smaller kids, but Tammy and Emmy did not stay for long. Sammy stayed longer.
After nearly an hour we decided to leave. We walked through the bookstore and returned to our car. We drove off, and I asked them to take a nap. However, Tammy and Emmy were fighting instead. And so I finally gave them their tablets as they were obviously not gonna sleep. Surprisingly it was Sammy who fell asleep - with his tablet - and he fell asleep a second time after waking up. The others did not.
After 65 minutes we reached the house again at 5:25 pm. I was extremely tired and lay down on our bed. The kids were playing. At 6 pm we already had to leave again, as they had people coming to the house for a meeting. And so the Dad and the boys stayed, while the Mom and her daughter and us went to a pizza place for dinner. The kids were pretty impatient for the food to come out, as it took a long time. Sammy really likes both the Mom and the daughter and tried to be close to them. Finally the food came, and Tammy and Emmy ate well. Even Tammy ate the pizza, and it was truly the best pizza we've had to date since coming to the US. We had a great time of fellowship and eating and left after 90 minutes to return to the house.
By 7:40 pm we were back at the house, and the kids immediately ran off to play with the other kids, while I lay down again, still being so very tired. Just after 8 pm it was time to get them ready for bed, so they took a shower, then I read them a bedtime story and prayed for them and put them to bed. It was about 9 pm. I stayed for a short time with them, then got up to turn on the computer for the first time today. Soon the kids were asleep.
I had so many pictures and was also so tired that I knew I couldn't get it all done tonight. I decided to write my report instead and leave the pictures for tomorrow. Now it's just after 11 pm, and I'm the only one not sleeping. However, I'm about to go to bed myself.
