Swetsville Zoo

I have very fond childhood memories of visiting the Swetsville Zoo in Fort Collins. It is a "zoo" made up of 160 animals made out of old car parts, machinary and old metal pieces, just off of I-25 in Fort Collins. Last weekend, my aunt, uncle and two cousins were in Fort Collins and so Papa, Grandma, Uncle Steve, Aunt Madeleine and our family headed up there for the day and night. I couldn't help but want to take LT to one of my fondest childhood memories. However, Papa read in the paper a few weeks ago that the Swetsville zoo is being torn down and redeveloped. Apparently the owner can't take care of it anymore and his son isn't willing, or can't either. Luckily, we were able to take LT for one last visit before the place is just history.
I thought LT would like it, but I had no idea how much he would love it!
When we walked in, LT immediately got on the bench with this character to have a little conversation.

Some of the animals were so big, he was a little unsure of them, but still quite excited and never frightened.
LT was so fast at trying to get to the next "amal" that we had a hard time keeping up!

He ran around pointing and saying, "mo amals, mo amals".
After the zoo, we headed to a little Tex-Mex restaurant with the extended family. Unfortunately, Brian spent about 2 hours chasing the little guy around and wasn't able to take any pictures. LT did manage to scarf down quite a bit of "beans, rice and CHICKEN (what he calls tofu or really anything that goes with beans and rice)"Brian and I were slightly nervous about how LT would sleep in a hotel room, but he did surprisingly well. We got back from dinner, put on his jammies and he pointed to the bed and said, "books, night nights", read his book, laid down and fell sound asleep. That was the last we heard of him until the morning (well, except for the yelling of "cookies" in his sleep!) It was a very successful trip.