twentysomething: Walk on the wild side

It's been awhile since I posted! Things have been pretty busy in our lives.

First thing's first, I'm excited because two weeks ago I ran and completed a 5k course on a whim! :) It wasn't a competition, just me challenging myself to run an entire course without stopping......and I did it! It may not be a big feat to many people, but I was proud of myself! I think I made pretty good time too! When I finished I felt invincible. Like I could climb a mountain. Jump up and touch the moon. Live in a large nest on a cliff's edge and raise a baby bald eagle by feeding it Alicia Silverstone style while images of the American flag appear in the background. Me shouting, "fly, eaglet, fly!" while God Bless America plays on repeat. Run, Tracy, run! I also kind of felt like this:

Not sure if that makes sense, but it's how I felt. I've had that song stuck in my head since then. My body was super sore the next day. I haven't attempted to run the course again. :( I need to keep practicing and then pick a race, hopefully next month.

On Sunday we took a party bus to tailgate a Chiefs/Chargers game. I brought mayhem down upon myself--holy hell, someone should have reminded me I had to work the next day. I busted a lot of dance moves on that bus.

I also tried to make these cute pinterest-y cupcakes for the tailgate.

Source: the-baker-chick.com via Tracy @ twentysomething on Pinterest

FAIL.

I will say the cupcake/frosting recipe was delicious. I had to slather my cupcakes in frosting to get them to look this crappy.

I also wanted to share some pics of a recent trip my family took to the zoo. Not just any zoo, but the Tanganyika Wildlife Park. Why had I not been here before?? This place was awesome! Very interactive!

We got to feed giraffes..

Did you hear me?! We got to FEED, PET, AND LOVINGLY STROKE A GIRAFFE! It felt like petting a horse. My mom even kissed this one :)

We saw some primates, including this cute little guy:

We also fed some hungry lorakeets. This was fun, but a little overwhelming. These tiny birds swarm you and land all over your body. Their claws dig into your skin and it isn't pleasant, but the experience is still cool.

The lorakeets also strike fear into the hearts of children. As he entered the enclosure, I heard a child shriek in fright, "NOOOOOOO!!!"

Good times for the whole family!

While walking along the path we encountered two zoo keepers taking a honeybadger for a stroll. This guy was a rascal. He was wiley and was spastically darting all over the place. I stopped to ask the zoo keeper a million questions (typical) and forgot to take a picture! That's okay though. Honeybadger don't care, he don't give a shit.

Probably one of my favorite things was PETTING A KANGAROO. OH MY GAWD! So freaking exciting! The only rule was that you could not pet the joeys in the pouches of the mama kangaroos. How awesome would it be to have a pouch!!??

See the little joey feet?!

Yeaaaaa maannnnn, is it just me or do these guys look like they are perpetually stoned?

But, then! This happened!

A joey stumbled out of his mama's pouch, hopped around for a bit and then hopped back into the warmth of his pouch home. The mama roo's lipgloss, ID and cell phone also fell out of her pouch, but I missed getting a pic. That mama roo likes to club hop.

The craziest thing we got to do was feed lemurs. The word "lemur" means "ghost" because these guys have creepy eyes and an eerie call.

The attendant gave each of us a Craisin, let us into the enclosure and told us not to touch the lemurs unless they touched us first. Was he kidding?! The second we stepped in we were mobbed by these striped thugs. They jumped ALL OVER US, landed on us with their soft, padded fingers, hung from our arms and legs and leapt from atop our heads to their next Craisin holding victim. Evidently Craisins are like crack for these guys.