Best. Birthday. Ever.

Saturday, we celebrated my birthday at the zoo. Last year, the zoo opened a Zoofari, and I have been desperate to go. We are so fortunate that our zoo has a ton of space for the animals to roam. The antelope, rhinos, and ostrich have 40 acres to wander, which is awesome for them. It makes viewing them a little tricky. So...the zoo converted a bus into an open air vehicle, and you can ride with one of the keepers for an hour-long excursion into their home.

Brad got Mom involved, and we left bright and early for the zoo Saturday morning. You can't purchase tickets ahead of time, so we were first in line when the zoo opened. We got our tickets for the first zoofari of the day, and we all watched Brad relax once those tickets were in hand.

And we were not disappointed. We saw all but one breed of antelope:

 And we could have reached out to pet a rhino:

 Even Evan scooted a little closer to me with that huge horn just on the other side of a bus wall. We were close enough to actually see all of the little hairs that make up his horn.

 Pearl stole the show for most of the family, though:

 She actually came up and stuck her head in the bus!

We got beautiful views of the elephants:

 And antelope:

 And even saw a herd on the move:

It truly was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and I'm glad I had this crew with me:

We spent the rest of the day exploring the zoo, and we were so grateful to see so many animals so active. We even got our usual chimp picture:

We ended our zoo day with another trip to the bird show, which Brad and Mom loved! They had never been, so it was all new to them. The kids and I loved seeing how much more comfortable the birds were this time!

We came home to shower and then ended our day at Mez for a fabulous dinner. It truly was just about the best birthday ever!