After spending almost an entire month away from his family, Michael took last Friday off from work and the family headed to the zoo. It was a gorgeous day (78 degrees) and the zoo boasts to be the best around, so we looked forward to our day of fun. It turns out it was also the last day of spring break for our county's school system (and probably surrounding counties as well), so the zoo was packed! Not to worry -- Shaelyn loves to people-watch (especially "kid-watch") and spent more time squealing at the kids from her stroller than she did squealing at the animals. But she still had a blast! Here's proof...
A kind stranger offered to take a picture of the three of us. I'm always nervous about this, are you? I'm scared their gonna run off with our camera, and with me always wrestling a little one and Michael being the Uncle Rico that he is, we'd never catch them. But glad this lady was nice and honest - we got a cute pic!
Right as you enter the zoo, there is this adorable park for tots that is supposed to replicate a garden, and make you feel like the size of a bug. I think this was Shaelyn's favorite part of the whole day. And since she's our little ladybug, we had to get a picture of her with her buggy counterpart. She LOVED this slide and went down it at least 20 times......several of those times by herself! It was super fast! But didn't we go to the zoo to see animals?
Shaelyn's personal favorite
I think this gorilla was just as fascinated with Shaelyn as she was with it. It kept staring her down.
Gorgeous, right?
And Michael's favorite...
...for obvious reasons.
Hey wait, I thought we said we were going to go see some animals? After leaving the little bug park, we found this merry-go-round. As soon as Shaelyn heard the music, she started dancing in her stroller. I thought she'd love it. It had elephants to sit on and goes in a circle - what could be better than that?! Wrong! She was terrified and clung onto me the whole time. And while I was sad that she wasn't totally enjoying herself, I loved the clinging.
Now up close and personal. Shaelyn loved this sea lion. She kept banging on the glass and enticing it to come back. Seeing animals through your child's eyes is seriously magical.
Shaelyn loved this aviary. All birds to her are "ducks", so she walked through this whole thing mesmerized, and constantly repeating "GUCK!" at the top of her lungs.
I love the zoo so much!
Can I go in and get the animals myself?
Hey gorilla, quit looking at me!Seriously, watching her reaction is so precious (but only if you're her mother...). Sorry to be so sappy about a gorilla encounter. But the lady's southern accent in the background is classic!
At most "habitats" (I guess you can't call them cages anymore), there were these ledges on the human side of the glass (kind of like a window ledge). The ledge in front of the chimpanzee habitat was very wide and allowed Shaelyn to walk, no run, back and forth. Eventually she started dancing for the monkeys. I'm not sure who got more attention...
She was such a trooper and stayed up 2 hours past her nap time without whining once! But of course she totally crashed before we made it to the car. I think it's safe to say she had a good time.
