All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing!!! Baaa-Neigh--Moo--Caw!!!

It's going to be hard not to sing my new version of Hymn 62 in Sacrament Meeting.

So, Derek and I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Oh my word.  It was ridiculously fun.

It was kind of cool, because this totally happened:

Thank you, google images for saying exactly what I wanted to say.

But for real!!  I don't know if it was my prejudice towards animals as a kid or that I've just grown up more, but seriously.  Every animal blew my mind.  We saw the rhino and I just kept thinking, "This is REAL!!!"  Like, this is a real animal.  Like, not even a fake one.

Anyway.  For some reason it literally blew my mind.  

ANIMALS ARE AMAZING.  And our Heavenly Father is the most creative Being ever.  Ever.

But before the animals (I know.  You're all waiting.), we're going to show you the cute pictures from our walk to the zoo!!  This street was seriously adorable.  

Fullerton Avenue

Same day, new hair.
Voltaire, hair.  I know.

Now for the moment of pure wonder.  Guys.  Rhinos are HUGE.  

"And who's the funky looking donkey over there?""That's Sven.""Uh-huh, and who's the reindeer?""..Sven." "Oh they're bo- oh! Ok. Makes things easier for me"

Okay.  Derek totally doesn't look like a rhino.  But it seemed to fit.  Bonus Frozen quote for everybody!

Polar bear swimming!  GUYS.  IT WAS REAL.

I never got to see a giraffe in Africa, but I saw some at the zoo!!!

This guy was about the size of a buffalo.  But it's a goat. (No, I didn't look up the name of it.)   Also, I would hate to run into that on the mountain.

What kept blowing my mind is that these animals just like...COME OUT LIKE THIS!!  They're born with the stripes, the spots, it's amazing. (I'm probably about to be contradicted by some expert who tells me that these things don't come til later or something.   But oh well.)  

We tried to find a favorite bird and this guy totally won.  I even learned the name!  it's a Golden Breasted Starling.  It flew past us a couple times in the bird house and it was amazing!!  photo cred:  google images.  #ilovegoogle

Cute boy cute flamingos.

Hard to see.  But it's a gorilla.  Oh my word.  The way they move--so so so much like people.

Anyway.  That's all I'm gonna post but obviously there were tons more animals.  And it was amazing.  That is all.