To the zoo

We visited http://www.hamertonzoopark.com/ today, it was a good idea of Ellen's and I'm glad we went but.... not the greatest Zoo we've visited, at least not for kids. The website homepage features a cheetah in full sprint, the reality was mainly small nocturnal primates, birds and reptiles and a handful of cheetahs, tigers and donkeys. My favorite were the Vultures and Maribou Storks, the Maribou Storks were the most magnificently ugly birds I've ever seen. Apparently they hang around rubbish dumps and slaughter houses in Africa and considering they were almost as tall as me and were eyeing up Leon as a possible snack, I wouldn't like to meet them without the fence between us. Amazing to look at. Leon was more interested in pretending to be stuck in pretend mud, I think he liked the ring tailed Lima's when I pointed out they were like his cuddly pal Leroy we got at Amersfoort Zoo.
It was a reasonably fun day, I doubt we'll go back there, I wouldn't recommend it really. I like zoos with petting areas, visible keepers and a bit more imagination in presenting the animals. After all, their main target audience, kids, need to be drawn in. It was nice spending the day together with Ellen and Dan, as always. They are about to go and enjoy their 70th Birthday present to each other, so we won't see them for a short while. We went back to their's late afternoon and I sussed out a Hotwheels racing track Ellen had found in Oxfam for Leon and managed to put it together so it folded up properly. Me and Tobe had more fun racing as it was intended but Leon spent ages in his pretend world sending out repair vehicles and rescuing cars, it's really fun to watch him play.
Reuben is ever more getting about crawling now, he can pull himself up to kneeling and occasionally standing. I got some pictures of him standing by the pond, similar to some pictures we did of Leon at the same age.