Zoo Trip

We’re goin’ to the zoo zoo zoo; how about you you you? You can come too too too; we’re goin’ to the zoo zoo zoo.

That is, of course, a Raffi song that we listen to entirely too often in the car :) But, I couldn’t help but hum it on the way to the Asheboro Zoo a few weeks ago. John took a Friday off work and we headed up. Little did we know we’d be there for over 5 hours!

John and I tried not to have too high of expectations for this trip, because, after all, Rebekah is only 14 months old and is prone to being randomly fussy. Hannah is 3.5 years old and is therefore prone to being randomly whiny :) However! It was So. Much. Fun. We could not have asked for better weather or better views of the animals. Or, yeah, I’ll brag, better cooperation from our girls.

 

I was so happy when we walked up to the first exhibit and the giraffes were super close to us.

Score!

 

Zoomed in a bit to get a good pic of this beautiful zebra.

 

Those who know me fairly well know that I’m not an animal person at all. I dislike cats, I tolerate dogs, and am basically disinterested in all other animals being around me. But, taking your kids to the zoo and showing them God’s creation that they’ve never witnessed in person before is a whole new way to look at them! I was able to appreciate them better than before and I am thankful for that. Watching Hannah follow an ostrich’s movements and seeing Rebekah spotting the monkeys (this girl has a good eye) for the first time was priceless.

 

At the chimp exhibit.

 

What Rebekah did almost the etnire time…

 

…stared and stared and then screeched “UHHHH!” and almost violently threw her arm out in the direction of the animal when she spotted them. She did it at every exhibit. It was hilarious (and quite impressive, to be honest; a few times she was faster than me – and she didn’t even know what she was looking for!).

 

At the elephant exhibit. John decided they could both look from his shoulder at the same time. Ha. Nice try Daddy :)

 

Not zoomed in at all to get this shot!

 

Took a little break near the elephants to crawl on the sculptures. It was good to let Rebekah stretch her legs from being in the stroller and give Hannah a break from walking.

 

I swear I brought her in shoes, but she kept taking them off and trying to serve them to the animals for dinner. So, they ended up in the stroller basket.

 

Facing off with another elephant.

 

 

After we explored most of the Africa side, we came back out of the zoo to have our lunch in the ‘hippo park’. Here is Hannah finishing off the baggie of smashed chocolate chip cookies :)

 

So, they had a special Dinosaur exhibit, which was cool and all, but I didn’t really think was worth the extra $$. However, we had no way of knowing that and Hannah has been into dinosaurs for over a year now, so we went in. We did get a few good shots in Dinosaur land though. Not surprisingly, this is John’s favorite.

Not sure if you can tell, but that’s Hannah in the passenger seat. The kids got to have a mini archaeological dig at the end of the exhibit and then practice being paleontologists.

 

 

After we explored North America (which we weren’t expecting to be able to do, but since they were so cooperative, we decided to embrace it!), we got on the tram to go back to our car. This is what happened. PRECIOUSNESS.

An earthquake could not have woken this child up. Did I mention it was 4pm and she did not have a morning nap? Yeah. I’m glad she enjoyed the animals so much, otherwise I’m fairly certain she would have melted down long before this!

 

And, even after a very full day, this is what my big girl looked like during the entire tram ride! If that is not the face of child-like excitement, I don’t know what is. :)