A Trip to the Zoo

Daddy had a free day today, so he surprised us last night and said we would be spending the day together at the Zoo. Mommy was super happy because: I love the zoo! I also love that you can take your own wagon, stroller, food, etc. into the zoo. We loaded up the wagon with drinks & snacks and were ready to go!

When we got there we stopped at the "schedule wall"  to plan out our route for the day. We knew there were a few things we really wanted to see. And they all happened to be first on the list, and back to back. So our first stop was the elephants... to watch them be bathed and fed. We also were able to see them do a few tricks while we were there. 

Little Man slept the whole way to the zoo, so it took him a little while to wake up when we got there. He was kinda clingy to daddy at first.

However, when he saw that he could climb up on this elephant pedestal, he quickly woke up. We had to pull him away from it. 

Next we hit the African Safari. On the way we stopped at the reptiles to watch them feed a rat to a Viper. It was pretty cool. However, I opted not to share pics. They're not bad, but I was sticking to pics of Little Man. You're welcome Grandparents! :)  I think he enjoyed the Monkeys. They always put on a show and were pretty active today. I heard one zookeeper say that since it's been cooler lately, the animals are a lot more active. And we got there early, so they were out and about. 

Little Man played in the huts for a while to run off some energy. See how he's discovered that his cups can be "hands free." Who knew???

We stopped next to see the giraffe feedings. You could actually pay to feed the giraffes. We didn't this time, but I'm sure we will in the future when Little Man can participate.

He did like stopping to "pet" this giraffe. 

His favorite part of the zoo was the Children's Zoo area...surprise, surprise. He was able to run all over and see animals on his level. 

He tapped on the window to "talk" to the bald eagle. 

He slid down the slide. If you look real close, you can see his dirty face. But you gotta love that smile! 

Him & Daddy climbed through the tunnel to be little prairie dogs. He was a little confused when he saw me standing outside of the tunnel taking pics. 

There were 3 tunnels to walk through, and he did...multiple times. We had to pull him away from the tunnels. 

We also had to drag him away from this fox cave. There was a little fox in the cage next to it, and he followed that fox back & forth through the window for a while. 

He enjoyed pushing all the buttons to hear the animal sounds... except the fox growl that was pretty loud, and scared him every time. 

We "petted" the duck statue. 

Then tried to pet the real duck...who was very eager to snap at his chubby, little fingers. 

Then we went in to pet & brush the goats in the petting zoo. However, he was more concerned with trying to brush his own hair. 

And poke at the goat's eyes. He has a fascination with eyes. This goat was a trooper. 

And the highlight of the day, at least for Little Man, was the splash pad. 

That would be my child running around in the t-shirt and swim diaper.

I was smart enough to make sure we had a swim diaper, but not a swim suit. Oh well, there were kids running around in much less! 

He played a lot in the water today. Maybe because it was pretty hot outside at this point. This was pretty much the conclusion of his zoo experience. 

I say "pretty much" because this is how he looked the remainder of our zoo trip. We didn't do much after the splash pad. Micah and I walked through a few more exhibits, mostly indoor. And then we took our Little Man home to rest. I think we had a fabulous day as a family at the zoo! I look forward to many more trips! 

And since it's technically still summer, and the zoo was on our Summer List, we've checked off one more item from our list. We did pretty good!!