A day at the zoo...

This past Monday I took the three youngest grandchildren to the zoo. We had the best time. I love my special days with them. I had many of those special days when the oldest two were this age as well. Many wonderful Mamaw moments to fill my memories from all five grandchildren. I bought a cinch sac and had it personalized with Making Memories and that is what we use when we do our days out. Alexis took a picture of me carrying it so we could document more memories. This picture makes me smile because it means I was getting grandchildren time and because my rear does not look nearly as big in this picture as what I think it is. LOL. But it is also an incentive to lose weight!

We saw some wonderful things and were able to get a few good shots. Mr. Bear didn't move at all. He was just veggie out on a limb.

The kids were having a blast from the first moment we got there.

Alexis was so excited when she saw the Asian exhibit was opened. It's new and she has been wanting to go to it.

We were wondering if the symbols are the words that go with the pictures on the building. But since we don't speak Asian, I'm not sure we'll ever know.

I loved the little mist system and the Japanese lanterns.

Shelby and Colby liked the fountain. Colby said it was really cold. 

Alexis loved the information on the animals and the Asian greenery. She read every sign in there and touched everything they wanted you to touch. The tiger hide was so soft but she made me feel the tiger tongue and can I just say...OOOO GROSS! It just felt like tough sand paper but still...it was a tiger tongue. Yuck. 

We did see a beautiful tiger. I kept wanting it to look at us and it finally did.

Then it yawned real big and turned away again. Apparently he was not as happy to see us as we were to see him. 

They loved the exotic bird section.

Of course, we stopped at any play/recreation sections. They loved the tug of rope. 

Shelby liked skipping across the tree stumps.

Colby liked climbing the tree with the ropes.  

Alexis liked that as well. She climbed it real fast.

They were enthralled with big rhinos. But I agree with them that they are so dirty from laying in the dust that you can consider them beautiful. Alexis gave us some biology lessons about the horns of rhinos and the tusks of elephant. That child is so smart she's scary. And she loves to learn. Going around the zoo with her was wonderful because she read us info on every animal and plant that there was info on.

One of my favorites was the giraffes. This is the "baby" of the bunch. She is two years old.

We were able to see the lions fairly close, but other than wiggling their feet they continued to nap. But my hope was to see a good close up of the male lion so I was happy.

There was a lion statue and they all wanted their picture made on it. Alexis took the concentrated approach and looked ahead like it was taking her somewhere. 

Shelby took the I'm holding on for dear life approach.

And Colby took the Woo hoo! What a ride! approach.

One of our favorite moments and a place we spent a lot of time was with the gorillas. First we found this guy just sitting like a statue staring straight ahead.

Then we saw why....TWO mommies and TWO babies were coming down the hill. As we watched, he moved over some and they came down near him and then the kids played on the logs. One found a stick and the other tried to take it away from him. The Mom's pulled up a bunch of grass and weeds and then the kids dropped the stick and ran over to them and ate with them. Daddy sat off to side eating his own pile of grass. And it dawned on us...We were watching the gorilla version of a family picnic. It was so special. It made our day.