It's a zoo in Oklahoma City!

You might notice that at this time of the year, our blogs are less frequent. While we are sitting in one place we have less travel-worthy news to write about. But that doesn't mean that we aren't having fun. For example, one day we had a fun family day at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Our family would include our son and daughter-in-law who live in Oklahoma City (who are helping to entertain their nephew). . .

as well as our son and daughter-in-law and their family that are visiting here. We didn't get everyone's picture, but you can be sure that there is a grandbaby in every one.

We are blessed to get to share these grandbabies with another set of grandparents that are as crazy about them as we are! They are visiting the zoo today as well.

The Oklahoma City Zoo has a new arrival, and the baby giraffe was out enjoying the lovely autumn weather with us.

This zoo has done a good job of making enclosures that allow the visitors to see the animals up close.

We've had some pretty close bear encounters on the trail, but we've never gotten a close-up view of a bear paw like today. This black bear was right against the glass when we walked by.

A renovation of the Asian section of the zoo was completed several years ago, and Africa is under construction now. Oklahoma City has a zoo that is growing and is being well cared for. While we enjoyed seeing the real animals, the children seemed to love riding on the animal statues that are sprinkled throughout the zoo.

Our granddaughter's favorite animal is the panda, and she took off in a run when she spotted the panda display as we entered into Asia.

She loved these animals almost as much as the real ones! Because the only real pandas in the United States are at the zoo in Washington DC, we'll take this panda zoo experience as a good substitute today.

You can also buy a key to the Oklahoma City Zoo. Proudly worn on a lanyard around the neck, it allows the keyholder to unlock more stories about the animals we were seeing. Boxes at many different displays had key holes that unlocked the audio recorded by local news channel reporters.

As we walked back through the giant lotus blossoms on our way out, we were enjoying another lovely day of autumn weather here in the Midwest. While we're not traveling, we are still enjoying some great fun exploring the local attractions with people we love!