The Great Pumpkin Smash

Mmmm...pumpkins!



Since our schedule just didn't work out for Boo at the Zoo this year, we decided to enjoy this amazing weather yesterday and headed to the zoo for the Great Pumpkin Smash. This was our first pumpkin smash - and it was really cool! We started at the sea lions...the first scheduled pumpkin event of the day. Although we ALWAYS do the sea lion show with every visit because they are Maddox's favorite!

During the regularly scheduled sea lion show...
(I like how what you see of one is cut off on the other - interesting, no? ;-)





Then after the show - they tossed in a couple of frozen pumkins filled with fish...



Unfortunately, we didn't get to watch for long because we wanted to make it to the hippos pumpkin feast. So after a LONG wait on the tram (grrr...) we finally made it to Africa and started briskly walking towards the hippos. I had to stop and take a couple of pics along the way.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this image...
LOVE!



Foggy foliage...



We made it to the hippos just in time! Unfortunately a lot of people made it before us and it was quite crowded. So this is the best shot I got of the pumpkin going in...but man...I am still amazed at how hunormous these creatures are - look at the size of that mouth!



Apparently hippos can apply 1000 pounds of pressure per square inch. Wow! And it was so cool because when they chomped down on their pumpkins you could hear a loud pop. Then they gobbled up all the bits and begged for more.



This is the first time I had ever seen the hippos out of the water - I guess they normally only come out of the water at night. So it was really cool to see all of them...





Next it was the rhino's turn...



Another incredibly powerful animal, the rhino pressed down on the pumpkin with his nose and crushed it...









Like the hippos, the rhino gobbled up all of this pumpkin and was begging for more...



That was the last official pumpkin feeding we saw yesterday. The rest are just animal photos as we walked around Africa. The adorable and entertaining meerkats...





They were still working on their pumpkins that had been fed to them earlier in the morning. They crawled inside their pumpkins to eat...yum! If you look close, you can see the pumpkin in the meerkat's nails...







Another scenic shot - this one from the bridge as you head over the river in Africa...



Evey said "meooooow" to the leopard... :-)





Goodnight Gorilla is one of Evey's favorite books. On the last page when I say "Goodnight Gorilla" we pretend to sleep and snore. So I said "Goodnight Gorilla" to this giant sleeper - and Evey immediately started pretend sleeping and snoring in her stroller. ;-)



I would have loved to stay for the elephants painting and pumpkin feeding...but Maddox was apparently worn out from Halloween. He actually said that he was worn out and ready to go. He has NEVER voluntarily left the zoo before. So we just made a brief stop at the elephants as we headed out to the car.



Other than being swarmed by bees on multiple occasions (not sure what the deal was there)...we had a fabulous day at the zoo and really enjoyed what we saw of the Great Pumpkin Smash!