Zoo Trip - 2013

About 3 weeks or so ago...wow, I'm behind...we (me, husband, Grant, and my mother-in-law) went to the zoo. We don't go to the zoo in the summer. It's hot. But I got a great deal (through Living Social) on the tickets. They had to be used during June, July, or August and we sort of forgot about them. With my surgery coming up and August being super busy, we decided the last weekend of July to go. That actually turned out to be a semi-wise decision. The day was relatively tolerable (plus the zoo has a lot of tree cover on their walk ways) and the crowd was pretty low. We picked a good day to go. And Grant was jazzed. He told us he "needed" to see the crocodiles (they were alligators...but they're all crocodiles to Grant).

This year we started in Africa (see last year's post about my giraffe disappointment) because I was determined to feed a giraffe - it's on my bucket list. Well, they weren't cooperating...so once again I went without feeding a giraffe! I'm over it. Maybe next year. It was hard to stay disappointed when Grant was having so much fun (and stating every 5 minutes "Let's go see the crocodiles!" - which were at the other end of the zoo).

Seeing a giraffe is still cool, even if I didn't feed it.

This guy was being a bit of a show-off for us!

Grant was so excited! (Husband looks annoyed but he's not)

This monkey was cracking me up with the way he was sitting.
It reminded me of my dad HA!

Love the elephants :)

Aren't those markings so pretty?

Grant wanted so badly to having his picture taken
on this rhino and this rude mom kept letting her kid get in the way!

Such a pretty area for the animals to roam

This was inside one of the buildings. Grant loved that
little turtle statue on the bench.

The gorillas were awesome. You can't tell from the
picture, but that guy at the back is HUGE.

Next stop, the DINOSAURS!

Looks thrilled, doesn't he?

If you can't tell from my hair, it was humid. But still fun.

Had to get in the jeep!

At this point we had finally made out way - UP HILL - to North America. Seriously, starting in Africa was nice when I thought about feeding a giraffe (really, I'm over it) but all of us were rather sure our journey was all up hill from our starting point - excluding Grant, of course, who only cared about seeing animals and getting to the "crocodiles".

Buffalo are so odd looking but cool too.

Grant & Gramma waving to the buffalo

I love this picture (courtesy of Gramma!)

They had planted huge sections of black eyed Susans - my
mom's favorite flower. So pretty!

 We made a quick bathroom & water stop...right in fron the their playground area. So I took Grant over there to play quick. He had lots of fun there. It's pretty amazing how kids are so oblivious to how hot it is!

Climbing on the spider web

And...onward! We were almost done! Next stop was the polar bears, who were inside because it was so hot. We were so looking forward to seeing them. I guess that will have to wait until next time too. Like feeding a giraffe (over it, really). So then, the seals. Grant loved the seals!

His real excitment was their viewing area down below.

And finally...FINALLY. We got to the "crocodiles" (alligators).

"Oh! It's a CROCODILE!"

Happy zoo-goer :)

 It was a little crazy to go in the summer. Unless that ticket deal happens again, we probably won't go in the summer next year. I'm not sure if it was the heat or the prediction of rain (it never rained) but something kept the crowd low that day which made it very enjoyable. Plus, you can't have a bad day when you're watching your little one have such a great time. Also, I bought him a little stuffed alligator at the gift shop but he didn't know it. I surprised him with it when we got to the car.

He loved it and named it "Tick Tock Croc"

He had a good day :)