2nd Zoo Trip w/ Cousins

1st Picture of the Day

After taking advantage of the free zoo day last month, I decided we needed to try to go again this month, to see if Carson would enjoy it more than the first time. In the meantime I had mentioned to my sister-in-law Lisa that we were going to the zoo for a free day last month, and she said that would have been fun. So I got to thinking especially since she said her youngest Grace who is 3 has never been to the zoo, so I thought heck why not go together this month and that is where the plan started rolling. As the day grew nearer Lisa thought, let's see which of the other sisters wanted to take advantage of a free day at the zoo and make it a cousin's get together, so that is just what we decided to do. We sent an email out to the Dickens' sisters to see who wanted to come, it ended up being Lisa, Shauna, Cathy, myself, and all the kids that come with us, so quite a big group, which meant a lot of fun. This month it was much busier than it was in January  due primarily due to the weather I believe being a bit warmer this month and this month being the last of the free days for the season, but none the less very fun. Lisa and I were the first to arrive and it took us a bit to find a parking spot, but we lucked out and found 2 parking spots close to the front, and in the meantime we were able to save a spot for Cathy next to us as well, talk about lucky!

Our first stop again was the monkeys, however, the place where they house the Gorillas this time was locked so we didn't get to see them. 

Interesting to note if you go back to my post in January about the zoo you will see that one of these monkeys was in almost the exact same position for his is candid moment. See monkey to the side :)

A bunch of the kids and Cathy in awe over the 1st exhibit of monkeys.

Next was the exhibit that I was hoping was open as it was not in January due to weather was the elephants. As some of you know they are one of my favorite animals for some reason, so I wanted Carson to see them close up as possible. 

Baby Zuri and her mom





As you can see in the picture to the side he was trying everything he could just to be able to get out of his stroller the entire time. Unfortunately due to the fact it was only me watching him, I could not let him out and run. 

We stayed quite some time at the elephant exhibit and needless to say the kids bust out laughing as the elephants took care of their bathroom functions, why is it that is funny to kids no matter who or what is doing it?

We took the moment to get a picture of all the kids while they were still happy and enjoying the zoo. The back row from L to R: Nathan, Grace, Hazel, Claire, Ashley, Paige, Jacob, Preston. Front row: L to R: Amanda, Anya, Lehela, Carson, Kate, Abby, Josh, and Katie. Wish it could have been a closer picture, but too many kids and this is less than half the grandchildren. I think it turned out to be a very good picture of the kids. 

Carson could not turn down an opportunity to see the "fee fees" (fishes) at the zoo, this would have been devastating to him not to have seen them.  On a side note we always have to go see the " fee fees" at Walmart, I don't know how but he always knows when we are pulling up to Walmart and says "Fee Fee" before we have even parked, smart kid. 

 After seeing a few more exhibits, such as the polar bear and the sea lions we headed to the giraffes where we stayed for a little bit of time. It was surprising to me to note that the baby giraffe is only 5 months old, and  already is pretty tall!






Pictures of Carson taken with and in the giraffe house.

It is still cool to me to see how extremely tall giraffes are, and not to mention how long their tongues are.  

Upon finishing eating lunch in the Asian Highlands and seeing the large Asian cat we headed over to see the reptiles and the birds as our last stop of the day. Turns out we were there at the right time, right next to the reptile house a zoo keeper had gotten out a barn owl out of its cage. She brought it pretty close to the kids and we even took a moment for a photo shoot with the bird, it was fun to hear Carson repeat "owl" after me and say "Hoo Hoo," such a fun age to watch. 

 I kept both of these pictures and put them on the blog for a couple of reasons. 1st reason: Shauna who took both pictures, in the first one she was trying to focus on us and then realized the picture was supposed to be about all 3 of us :) 2 reason: The first picture is best of Carson, but the second pictured is best of the owl with us. Carson really wanted to touch the owl as you can tell from the picture to the side, too bad little guy.

After finishing up our photo shot with the barn owl we headed to the reptile house, and finally I let Carson out of the stroller for the first time the whole zoo trip. Thanks to Claire and Hazel for helping me push the stroller so I could watch after my very hyper toddler, who wanted to run everywhere. 

  

Carson loved this little sad cat, and would giggle and giggle as it ran back and forth in its cage. He would not help himself, but he let out a few meows and the cat ran by him. :)

He loved making an escape through the doors and up to the "bees"(birds) He also loved to play on the rope they have to protect the birds on the surface floor good thing, who knows what he would have done if he could have gotten any closer to them.

Such a cute and curious boy, who has so much energy, which I am running out of the further I get with this pregnancy.

Carson, after being let out of his stroller, went immediately under the railings they have to protect the reptiles from kids who would love to tap on their exhibits. However, to my surprise Carson just went up to them and peered into the exhibits, these pictures are of him looking at snakes, "sssssss" he said.

All in all we had a very enjoyable time, we are glad that some of the cousins were able to join our fun. We look forward to many more fun memories at the zoo!