Summer Field Trip: The Zoo

Kelli, Gracie and Jack were in town for a few days, so we headed to the zoo! It drizzled in the morning, so it kept the crowds away away and the girls had free reign of the place.

I took about 84,000 of this same picture throughout the day. So they wouldn’t run off we told them to hold hands, and it was so precious to see them walking side by side, hand in hand the entire day! The boys had to enjoy the views from their strollers. {One boy got his nap and one didn’t…can you tell which?!}Some of the exhibits for the smaller animals {like this one for the birds} frustrated the girls because they couldn’t easily spot the animal. Instead they climbed up on the railing and showed us their ballet moves.  We got to see the new kangaroo exhibit. It’s a fenced-in area that you get to walk through, so we weren’t but about 10 feet from the animals. The heat must have tired the kangaroos, though, because they were all napping in the shrubs. Our next stop was the gorilla exhibit, but unfortunately there were no gorillas to be seen. Unfortunately, one of the gorillas was found dead a few days ago, and we think maybe the others were sad and keeping to themselves. :(

The girls, of course, loved the elephants. They were more-than-tickled when they saw one of the elephants poop right in front of them! Gracie got to “ride” the elephant, but Baby Girl was scared to climb up. {You’ll notice that became the common theme for the day.} The normally-never-mobile tortoises were booking it from one side of the exhibit to the other! Before now I would have bet my life that they were statues, not actual animals! We couldn’t head to the zoo without stopping by to say hello to the giraffes. The feeding deck was closed, so we didn’t get to offer these cuties some scrumptious $2 leaves, but they were fun to watch nonetheless. Both girls kept asking about the farm animals and were super excited once we made it to the barn. Gracie couldn’t wait to ride the pony. Emory fled in fear of us making her ride the pony! But Gracie had fun enough for the both of them.Gracie climbs the gorilla…Em prefers to keep her feet safely on the ground. We headed into the penguin building to get a little AC. This is probably ones of Emory’s favorite animals at the zoo. They didn’t do much swimming or diving, but we did get to see a very new baby penguin being fed by the mommy!Miss Kelli stole the show when she whipped out a panda candy dispenser for each of the girls. {I thought I was a fun mom to pack Toy Story fruit snacks…guess not!} Emory was smitten! Gracie preferred to watch the big “throw a penny in and watch it circle round and round” thing. Gracie and Kelli rode the carousel. But…surprise, surprise…Emory was too scared.  Little Jack got to escape the stroller long enough to say hello to the lion cub……and to say goodbye to Baby Boy. The girls had SUCH a wonderful time together and didn’t want to leave each other. So we gave big hugs and headed our separate ways, looking forward to our next playdate!!!     Thanks, Kel, for a fabulous day! We can’t wait to do it again! Love you!