A Day At The Zoo

We have a very lovely zoo just an hours drive away from where we live and we were fortunate enough to go this last weekend. My parents and siblings along with a very good family friend, who was visiting from out of town, invited us to go with them and we had such a good time! We were able to take our time showing the boys each animal and stopped at a lovely picnic area halfway through to enjoy a picnic lunch. The weather here is a bit weird seeing that we don’t really get “summer” weather until everyone else in the country starts to experience “fall” so it was a pretty warm, humid day, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting! We enjoyed the shade while we ate and the boys got to run around and explore. The only bummer was my poor Mom getting pooped on by some nasty birds that chose to sit right above us.

Carter was in Heaven observing each animal, the elephants especially. Oliver was expecting the penguins to sing and dance (one too many Happy Feet videos on youtube maybe??) and was asking why they weren’t doing so. 

My Mom paid for the boys to walk straight up and feed the giraffes and oh boy did they love that! That whole experience was by far the highlight of their day!  Carter got a kick out of the giraffe sticking its long purple tongue out and licking him while trying to get the lettuce out of his hand…we probably could have stood there all day, it was awesome.

Oliver, super excited to ride the train!

Carter was indeed excited....but it's not like you could tell from this picture :)

The zoo also has a train you can pay to ride that takes you around the entire property and even lets you in on a little behind the scenes action. The boys were really wanting to try it out so Kaleb and I took Carter and my sisters took Oliver and we enjoyed the breezy ride and gorgeous views. 

In the picture above Oliver had walked up to this locked door and was trying to peek through the cracks to see what was back there. My Dad said "That's where they keep the lion" and he turned around and ran for his dear little life... my Dad's reaction: "Oh no, it's just a turtle!" We were laughing pretty hard, he wasn't expecting Oliver to react that way. There's never a dull moment...

My Mom was so nice to get me and the boys season passes that are good for the next year so we will definitely be heading back soon…the boys loved it!