Hanging Out With Some Monkeys...

A couple Saturdays ago Ben and I volunteered at the Gibbon Center clearing brush and making the grounds fire safe for all of the monkeys (and the people who work there). The center was really neat and a lot bigger than we both had thought it would be. They do awesome work there breeding, studying and working with various zoo exchanges to help educate the public about these little monkeys (which I guess are really apes, since they have no tails) some whom are even endangered. Ben was completely stoked to find out that there are monkeys (and lots of them) less than 15 minutes away from where we live. He seriously could have stayed there all day, but we were only there for a good chunk of time in the morning up until the early afternoon. I'm sure he'll go back some weekend and sketch for hours though. After completing our allotted time we received a tour of the grounds and got to see a ton of gibbons.. I guess it was a little cold out that day so we didn't get to hear them sing to each other... bummer, but we did get to see at least 3 mama monkeys with their new little babies... so cute. As a nice bonus we did our volunteer work thru Disney's Give a Day get a Day program, so now Ben and I have free tickets to Disneyland... yay!!! But we would go back a help out the center any day regardless of the free tickets... we kind of have a thing for monkeys!

Breaking down the bigger chunks so they could be used for firewood...

We cleared out the hills in the back of the complex of fallen brush and dead trees.

Our tour guide, who relocated from Hungary, to study and help breed endangered Gibbons... was telling us about that little guy up on top through her really cool accent.

One of the many new mamas in the center. I believe this little one is only 6 months old.

Thanks again Heidi for watching the girls!!!