Zoo Trip

Last Saturday we took a family trip to the zoo.  (We were very fortunate enough that my mom and dad bought us a family pass for a year!  Woohoo!) 

It was tiring, but so much fun.  It was neat to see Josh's interest in all the animals.  I love to see Josh's excitement.  This time he also had a 'fear' of the animals.  He didn't really want to put his hand up to touch the animals, and didn't realize that there was REALLY thick glass between them.  I mean if you think about it, the glass he knows is like our sliding back door where you can open it and shut it and let the 'animal' in and out!

This picture is important because the whole way thru the zoo, Josh's choices were "Mommy can push you in the stroller or Daddy can carry you."  It's getting a little hard (and very tiring) to carry a five pound baby, plus other weight I've put on, and a 30 pound toddler.  Uh....not happen' boys! 

Here they are looking at Daddy's favorite animal....the lion!  Josh can even roar like a lion.  Chad always says the lion is either sleeping or sleeping.  He's right.  I think in all the years I've been to the zoo I've only seen the lion awake and/or moving twice.  Do you think that's why Chad likes him?  Ha Ha.... 

And here we are looking at the tiger.  This is a newer exhibit at our zoo.  I'm sure they had tigers before, but this is one of those fancy donor sponsored exhibits. 

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The tiger kept pacing by the window.  At one point he even turned around and squirted something at us from a very inappropriate place.  I'm sure it was a warning sign.  The mama lion was lying in the corner, so we deduced that she was either pregnant and he was protecting her or it was feeding time and we were his dinner!  Josh wouldn't even let go of Chad or I.  He was really scared!

Josh's new favorite animal is the alligator-right behind a tiger and a lion.  The alligator was under water with just his eyes sticking out, but Josh enjoyed seeing him. 

He also enjoyed seeing the turtles swim! 

They were little and there were lots!

Then after being there for about an hour or a little more, the pregnant one and the toddler started to get hot and cranky, so Chad decided it was time to cut the visit short. 

We sped thru the penguin exhibit, but by this time Josh's fear of the animals had diminished (or the penguins just looked really friendly) and he was trying to pet them thru the glass.

I, of course, had packed some quarters to feed animals.  We decided against the petting zoo.  That's all we need is for me to get some funky hand, foot, hoof disease eight months pregnant.  Yeah, that'd be an adventure. 

So, we fed the fish and left.

We had packed a picnic lunch (or as Josh calls it a pic-pic) and hit the park.  We hadn't been to this park, but it's REALLY cool!  It's handicapped accessible which actually works well for Josh since he can't do all the bog-boy park stuff.

Josh's favorite part was swinging.  We tried getting him to do other things because we have swings at home, but he really only wanted to swing.

It wasn't terribly hot by Kansas standards, but it was hot enough to make for a cranky toddler and mama. 

We both took a good nap!