The Zoo

Our last big event…until the main event, that is…of the summer is over! 

(Well, that’s not exactly true.  We have another wedding to go to next weekend, but it is closer to home and if we spend the night in a hotel it will be more for fun and because we don’t want to get home super late, than out of necessity.)

Last night we got back from a four day trip to the wedding of one of T’s cousins!  It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great long weekend!

On Thursday morning the girls went to preschool, T went to work for a few hours and I got everybody packed and ready to go.  We picked them up at Miss J’s and hit the road!

We’ve been planning on attending this wedding since last summer and even when I realized I’d be pretty far along we still wanted to go.  I figured it wouldn’t be a problem, and thankfully it wasn’t.  At my dr’s appointment last week I told him our plans and he said he doesn’t usually recommend travel after 35 weeks, and to stop every 2 hours (there’s a risk of blood clots if you don’t move your legs every 2 hours I guess) so we took our time, making quite a few stops to stretch our legs.

We got to the hotel just before dinner time and met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Wade, Auntie Nae, and Waylon.  We got pizza and ate it in the hotel rooms before taking the girls for the promised before-bedtime swim.

The next morning we all met up with the other cousins and Grandma and Grandpa took us all to the zoo!  The kids were SO excited!

And it was so much fun to be able see everything with the whole family!

Black bears.

Bald eagles.

The little eaglets in the nest. :)

Boo rode in the stroller for the first hour or so and then the kids found this fun tunnel shortcut on one of the paths so she wanted out.

And then back in.  We pushed her up close to this so she could see the fish and she was squirming around.  “Getting wet Daddy!” she finally said.  The little waterfall was splashing all over her I guess, haha. :)

Turtles.

Some sort of frogs, I think.

The kids got so excited about the tractor and these tractor seats, which I thought was so funny since it’s something so common to us.  If they want to get on a tractor all we have to do is go out to Grandma and Grandpa’s.  Maybe they were just excited to see something familiar?

I got this picture of Boo looking through the peep holes at the polar bears, but then I forgot to get a picture of the bears themselves. :)

Wart hogs.  These guys were so funny.  There was one that was just running in circles around the habitat.  He was actually booking it really fast and the kids thought it was pretty funny. :)

Everybody went over to look at this monkey…

…and he came right down to the window like he wanted to check out the kids! I thought this picture was hilarious! It looks like he is smiling at Waylon!

And this fish thought Boo was pretty interesting!  She loved that it came over to her!

Cute little elephant. 

They had a little tribal section set up so the kids entertained us a bit with some drums.

The “daddy and mommy” lions.

The kids ran in this little area and Boo was saying, “I’m Daniel! I’m Daniel!”  I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about until I read the sign that said, “Lion’s Den” and realized that Bug and E were pretending to be lions and Boo was Daniel.  So funny. :)

Here was a similar den but the cheetahs were right there!  They didn’t seem at all bothered by the kids on the other side of the glass.

Little prairie dogs.

Daddy and Boo checking out the zebras, gazelles, and giraffes.

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants in the zoo and then went back and did the one area we had missed.  I had promised Bug earlier in the morning that we would get an elephant ear before we left so I headed back to the “Africa” section to get one while they went and saw the seals, sea lions, etc.

Everybody had so much fun!

Some of the family went into the gift shop, but we had plans to go to the Lego store after naps and get souvenirs so we waited outside. :)

Our little drama girls. :)

What a fun experience!  Thanks so much for taking us all to the zoo Grandma and Grandpa!  We had a great time!!!