Fun at the Zoo!

Graham and I have had two really fun and unique trips to the zoo in October.  Oh, Carter was there too, but he slept through all the fun. 
On our first trip (10-4-12), we discovered that the zoo is undergoing a massive renovation project.  I thought the purpose of our trip was to see the animals, but Graham was in heaven just running for exhibit to exhibit and checking out the construction vehicles (2 years, 9 months, 11 days old):

On our second trip (10-29-12), the zoo was practically empty because it was the day after a big event that the zoo holds every year as a safe trick-or-treating alternative (Boo at the Zoo).  We hadn’t attended the event, so Graham was just thrilled to discover “Yo Ho” all over the zoo.  Graham loves the Disney song “Yo Ho, Yo Ho! a Pirates Life for Me” and we found a YouTube video where a skeleton was singing the song, so when Graham sees a skeleton, he thinks it is his beloved Yo Ho.  Every time Graham spotted a Yo Ho, he would run up and give it a high five, then look at me with a huge smile on his face:

This time we did get to see a few animals and Graham spent a ton of time hanging on the fence by the gibbons before going to check out the giraffes:

But, are you ready???  We had a HUGE highlight during the visit.  Graham discovered a large pile of hay bales and pumpkins.  We spent a while watching a forklift clear away the hay (again, cleaning up from the event the night before) and then Graham spotted a worker loading the pumpkins into a wagon.  Graham went right up to the employee and asked if he could help load pumpkins.  The man agreed and Graham and the man loaded the wagon all the way to the top.  When it was full, the man asked Graham if he would like to help him take the wagon to its next destination.  Graham agreed and off we went.
When we reached a gate, I asked Graham to thank the man, but the man said we could go behind the gate, so we took the pumpkins behind the gate and into the elephant enclosure!!!  The employee was giving Graham an opportunity to feed the elephants :)
We were told that the elephants weighed about 9000 pounds each and Graham just stared at them in disbelief:

The idea was to roll pumpkins under the fence to the elephants.  At the last minute, Graham got scared, so one of the employees actually rolled the pumpkins, but I got a video and picture.  Pretty impressive how the elephant crushes the pumpkin like it is nothing:

At the end, I got this cute video of Graham and the elephant waving goodbye to one another:

We LOVE the Santa Barbara Zoo and those two visits in October were extra special!