artis zoo

sorry for the long delay in blog posts, y'all! our friends laurel and david came to visit for a few days, and it's kind of rude to be blogging when you have company. right? anyway. i'll catch you up (hopefully), and you can read about our visit later. 

so. we went to artis royal zoo, the oldest zoo on the continent, on my birthday. here are some highlights:

but first we passed by thomas' burger place. 

the artis zoo had some sort of installation going on, and everything was covered with colorful knit objects of all kinds. we LOVED this. ryan thinks i should cover random surfaces of our house with knitting. we'll see about that. 

doesn't it look cozier this way?

i loved the ones that had some sort of integrated clothing or accessory. like this dude's cape. 

that's a pair of asses. hahahaha. (i'm so mature...)

a knit butterfly in the bush is prettier than a dead one on a board. 

GNOMES! who can make one for me?

it was cold that day. i think these guys were chilly. they are grooming. 

there was a petting zoo with farm animals. 

now you know how to order at a restaurant. just kidding. 

this turkey was seriously angry and possessive of his space. he kept charging the other chickens and women. he did not charge ryan though. 

see? he's MAD

goats. 

watch your step. 

inter species napping. 

BLACK SWAN! this one is mila. 

and this is natalie. 

flamingos. it's pretty sucky for them to live in amsterdam when they are used to places like florida. it's pretty cold here. 

south american mammals. also unhappy. 

baby llama. 

miserable wallabys. i also feel for these guys; who wants to be cold and wet in holland when you used to live in australia??

shy red panda. 

zoo back in the day. 

ryan's favorite thing. 

wolves. and let me tell you something. i was standing there, and three of them ran right by the fence, and turned and stared at me, and i would NOT want to face down a pack of wolves without a fence there. actually, i didn't like it with a fence there. 

european vultures. i pointed this out to ryan and he thought they were statues. they keep their wings like this for.... well, for as long as we were there, which was about 8 minutes. 

he was actually quite amused by the people below:

he's covering a smile, really. it was funny. 

he is not amused though. 

i liked the warmer monkey. 

don't tell stephen colbert. it's a bear. 

giant wingless cockroach. ewww. 

ryan is scared of that tarantula. 

these beetles were a vivid blue green. this doesn't really capture it. 

creepy spiders. ryan wanted me to do this, because he was afraid to put his hand that close. 

gigantic snails. 

african hunting dogs. they have quite the coats. 

he's cute. super cute. 

bird of prey, and in his cage, there are these on a platform:

gross. like a little offering for him. eww. 

fennec fox. so cute. he was tired. 

this is a nutria, NOT A BEAVER. that's what the sign says, literally. but it's basically a European beaver, so there. 

hedwig!

red cross dog. 

and those are crocheted. i love it.