Parrots, Parrots, Parrots!

We spent the three-day holiday in Corpus Christi area and loved being in one of our favorite weekend get-away destinations! Our first day was spent visiting the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. We did not know what to expect, but the place blew us away with all the beautiful flowers and animals to see! When we first arrived, we saw lots of beautiful Plumeria trees, amazing parrots, reptiles, butterflies, orchids, cacti, and a really unique playground! They had sunflower seeds and popcorn you could feed to the parrots and giant collard green leaves to feed the iguanas. Feeding and holding the parrots were definitely the favorite highlights of our time there!

Plumeria at the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. They were everywhere! So beautiful!

This place has the largest grove of Plumeria trees in the United States. They were gorgeous, and smelled amazing! 

More Plumeria . . . I just could not stop taking pictures of them!

Isaac and Jason ready to go exploring! 

I never knew parrots like to eat popcorn! It was so cute to watch them gently grab the popcorn in their beak, then reach their claw up to hold it. They would take little tiny bites off the piece of popcorn while holding it in their "hand".  It was so fun feeding them and watching them. Sometimes they would squawk really loud if you did not give them another piece fast enough, or worse yet if you or they accidentally dropped it and it fell into the bottom of their cage. God was very creative when he made parrots--they have such beautiful colors and very unique patterns.  

I got to feed an iguana two giant collard greens leaves. They were so cute tearing the leafy parts off the stalk. Did you know they are vegetarians? I remember seeing iguanas in Cozumel on our honeymoon.
There were 6-7 of them in the side yard of our hotel, and they were grazing on the grass like cows 

Isaac really enjoyed the parrots! He even got to hold this one!

Jason enjoyed holding this young parrot. He was kind of playful and kind of "hyper" like a toddler. 

Isaac could not get enough of feeding the parrots sunflower seeds! He kept wanting to feed them more and more! 

The smile says it all! 

Feeding parrots at the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center.

The botanical gardens had an entire green house filled with all different types of orchids. They were gorgeous! I love to take pictures of flowers so much! Here are a few I took of the orchids. 

We enjoyed a moment in the shade on this whimsical butterfly bench. 

Zinnias in the botanical gardens

Not sure what Type of flower this is, but it was really beautiful! 

Butterflies in the butterfly area of the botanical gardens.

Flower in the butterfly area in the botanical gardens. Not sure what type it was, but I love this very pretty color! 

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The playground was really cool, with a really tree house. The house part of the playset was built
on a really huge and really old tree stump from a redwood tree from California. 

Isaac loves any and all playgrounds!

A beautiful bushy clump of flowers in the botanical gardens. I don't know what type it was, but I snapped this picture of it.

I saw this and thought it was some well placed art. This sculpture blended in with this marshy area. So lovely! 

Becoming a butterfly. . . except the "mini-butterfly" was getting very tired and fussy. Good thing lunch and the hotel pool was next on the agenda, because that perked him up really quick!