Family vacation: Day three

Wednesday it cooled off to a chilly 90 degrees so we headed out to the zoo.  We didn't have a lot of options as we only had two full days left and both of the remaining activities on our list were outdoor activities.  We had heard their zoo was huge.  That seemed to be an understatement.  We spent nearly 7 hours there and still didn't see everything.  Silly mommy thought Max would eventually just fall asleep in his stroller.  Ha ha!  Max is tooooo nosy for that!  He was awake the entire time.  And, he was actually really good at the zoo.



They had a nice children's portion of the zoo - some guinea pigs to pet, some tunnels to crawl around in and get better views of the animals, a little area with owls and a volunteer to tell you all about the owls, donkeys to pet, etc.  Side note: there was a volunteer in a rocking chair with a possum.  Gross!  I acted like I didn't notice her and scooted the boys on by.  Were there no bunnies available for petting?   Did I mention 'ick?'



Some of my favorite animals.

A chicken on the loose in the chilren's part of the zoo.  The boys didn't seem to mind sharing the sidewalk with her.

Grooming the goats.  Seth really got into brushing them.  He is definitely my  more timid one so I was glad to see him take an interest in something hands-on.

They had a small butterfly garden.

Trying not to post too many animal pictures, but our zoo doesn't have ant eaters and these things were so different looking that I had to share.  Although this picture doesn't really do it justice.  I spent most of the day debating which of my two lenses to use and usually regretting whichever decision I made.

This was a younger elephant.  The exhibit was set up well in that the elephants got really close to the crowd.  It was so hot and they were throwing water around with their trunks.  This was a fun one.

Our non-sleeper, looking very sleepy.  He cuddled with both of us on the train ride, but still refused to sleep.  The train actually makes five stops along the route and you can get on and off at different exhibits.  However, you have to leave your stroller wherever you board the train so you end up with 20 pounds of heat to carry around.  That said, we went for the round trip train ride, back to the stroller.  We were able to see a lot of animals on the train ride so that was fun.  Plus, it was a nice break for all of us from walking around in the heat.

Penguins!

The bear - check out those claws. 

A family portrait?

Our final stop at the zoo was Build A Bear.  We wanted the boys to have a special souvenir.  Seth is the only one who has even been to Build A Bear.  Aunt G and fam took him the day Luke was born, so Seth wasn't quite two and, obviously, doesn't remember it.  Here is Seth helping to stuff his goat.  After petting and brushing the goats, that's the animal he chose - I thought that was too cute!

Luke, hand on hip, assisting with the stuffing of his elephant, Bamboo.

Both boys "bathing" and brushing their new friends.

We held up a few for Max to choose from and he picked the guinea pig.  This girl was so wonderful - she let both boys put hearts in Max's animal (avoiding the fight that could've been). 

It didn't take long after leaving the zoo for 2/3 of the backseat to fall asleep.  Lukey is loving on Bamboo.   

Luke loves his new Bamboo.  Max actually gets a little excited to see Sleepy (I named his because Max was so sleepy).  And Seth, well, Seth loves his stuffed dog Beckley and seems to always feel guilt loving any other stuffed things.  He was very excited with Grassy the goat, until he got back to the car and found Beck.  For the most part, Luke just loves on Bamboo and Grassy. 

For dinner this night, we went with simple food from the fridge.  All Max could do was sit in the floor with his arms up and cry.  Everyone was hot and tired.  We got a little food in Max and bathed everyone and they were out for the night.  In fact, I think this was the first night that Max went to sleep without me laying on the floor next to his bed!