The Zoo

Back to work and way behind on posting anything!  This was actually weeks ago, before I started the school year, but it was lots of fun and I'd hate to leave any pictures out.  Behold, the wonder of the zoo.

We began our tour at the aquarium, which was kind enough to provide this toddler-sized window for maximum viewing excitement.  There were also some tanks that allowed for stroller-side peeks as well.

Lucy just could NOT believe there was a Nemo, a Marlin, and a Dory at the zoo.  And they were all kind enough to pose for a picture together for us.

Can you tell how much fun we're having?  Mr. Cool is, well, cool.  But I think he had fun.

This is a shot of our train ride.  Don't worry, Lucy wasn't holding Jamie while the train was actually rolling, just for a few moments while everyone boarded.  There was probably also a big smushy kiss and an "I love this baby sooo much."  It's great to be a big sister.

 There was a goat feeding station (do all zoos have this?) where Lucy got to get a little dirty.  You can't see but this goat looked like he swallowed a massive ball.  Imagine that, perfectly round in the middle.  I wonder if there are any researchers who study the long-term health effects on the goats in the feeding pens.  There has got to be some consequences of this lifestyle.

My personal favorite this zoo trip was seeing the penguins.  I'm not sure what kind these guys are but they were tiny and they were funny.  We ate our lunch on a bench watching them so we were there for quite a while. 

One of the reasons we went to the zoo was the dinosaur exhibit. There have been hundreds of ads for this, come see the dinosaurs before they go (it's a traveling exhibit).  I should have known with the quantity of ads about how cool they were to see and how much your kids were going to love them that they weren't really that cool and my kids wouldn't really love them.  It was interesting, and from an engineering perspective the robots that powered them were, in fact, pretty cool.  Unfortunately, much of this was lost on Lucy and poor J just slept right through all the commotion and roars.  It's a Mount Rushmore.  I was a bit disappointed, but it's one of those things I had to see for myself.  It probably would have been cooler if they were all kinds of bright colors like we see on Dinosaur Train.

Though my favorite exhibit was the penguins, giraffes have for a very long time now been my favorite animal.  There were five or six of them roaming around a grassy hill here, and several times throughout the day when you could feed a giraffe!  We went, but the line was about twenty kids long.  Since I figured the experience was more for me, I didn't make Lucy wait.  We went back, though, about half an hour later and got right in.  Note that this giraffe is eating on his own.  This becomes important soon.

Here Lucy is, waving her $1 lettuce leaf at the giraffe.  There were also a whole lot of other kids with their parents against this fence, also waving their $1 lettuce leaves at the giraffe.  The giraffe was supremely uninterested.  Can't say I blame him.  It was the third of the daily "feed a giraffe" times, forty minutes and probably thirty kids into the lettuce leaf waving.  Plus they have food out.  When a giraffe did swing his long neck over, there was inevitably another parent with freer arms than me who dangled their kid out so he/she could be the one who fed the giraffe.  I underestimated Lucy's interest in this activity, because we must have been there for fifteen minutes, waiting patiently (and not) for our turn.  Then she dropped her leaf.  So we bought another one. 

 

Finally a giraffe headed our way and this #@*hole next to us started teasing him, pulling the lettuce away every time he stuck his tongue out to grab it.  Seriously?  I'm sure Aunt Grace has stories but what kind of person teases animals at the zoo?  Especially an animal that has a crowd of people who are frantically trying to get its attention?  For the dignity of my children, I held my tongue.  

But sweet success!  That is Lucy's little hand about to get licked while I balanced Jamie on my hip, dangled Lucy over the edge of the fence, and took pictures without looking at the camera screen.  Yeah super mom.

Feeding the giraffe was a great way to finish our zoo trip.  We bypassed the gift shop and both kids were asleep in their seats before we were even out of the parking lot.