The Rest of the Zoo

Since giving birth I SCARF down food. Is anyone else like that??? I remember it being that way with Kye too. I eat so fast…maybe because I have some internal mommy clock that is just waiting for a baby to cry and need me or something? Whatever the reason, I clean my plate in like five minutes flat. I spent the rest of lunch time entertaining Brittlynn. I walked her around the area we were in and showed her lots of things and had her feel different textures. I wanted to feel like she got to have somewhat of an experience too right? Once it was nap time, I put her in the stroller and walked around in circles (she’s a motion loving child when not able to sleep in the swaddled-up comfort of her crib) while the guys finished up (Kye’s a sloooow eater like his Daddy).

Once Zach finished we let Kye eat the rest of his in the stroller. He LOVES eating on the go which is so random. On days when I pick him up from school I will pack his lunch in the car and he LOVES it. When we eat out places he always wants a to-go box to finish it in the car. So silly!

While Kye ate and Britt slept we had an easy time finishing out the rest of the animals…

this thing is the world’s largest rodent and is actually a type of bear…so random!

this monkey was not happy…he was such a grouch

checkin’ out some fish

she slept beautifully for that second nap!

more of the unhappy gorilla haha

Zach’s favorite view of the day

SO many of the animals were so friendly!

he had such a fun day

I love this

brief moment awake 🙂

I am a VERY hands-on type person with stuff. I LOVE to touch animals and am hardcore about my kids experiencing things. Why just see it when you can touch it?!?! Kye has ridden a horse, a camel, sat with a HUGE monkey, touched sea life, and now he has fed a giraffe. This experience was the main reason I wanted to take him to this zoo. It turns out you had to have $2 in cash to feed them and we only had $1. Some nice guy gave us a dollar so Kye could do it and I’m so thankful!!! Kye REALLY loved it and it was the big thing of the day (that and touching the sting rays were his favorites). Everyone was cracking up at him because he would not let go of the lettuce. The poor giraffe kept trying to eat it and Kye kept pulling it away!

Getting smart and using his tongue to pull it in haha

I had to do it too, I wasn’t about to miss out on that opportunity

Probably my favorite picture of the day!

We saw another boy hanging from the tusks and knew Kye would love it!

The giraffe feeding was my favorite thing but my second favorite thing was free…Zach hand fed a squirrel! We have a family of about five squirrels who live in our back yard and we LOVE them. They are literally always running along our fence, eating our pecans (we have a pecan tree yet none of us like them), and even sitting on our back porch. While we love them, we can’t really visit with them up close…yet the ones at the zoo know that people = food so they came right up to us!!! Zach fed him some of Kye’s fries! Kye was excited!!!

On our way out…I showed this to Zach later, so classic.

Not only did my husband offer to buy the extra admission tickets he also didn’t complain about the over-priced lunch AND let me hit up the gift shop. We got each of the kids a zoo shirt (my plan is to get each kid a shirt from every place we visit with them and eventually make them a quilt with all their travel t-shirts to remember!), we got an ornament for our tree (another tradition…a Christmas ornament makes the perfect souvenir), and he let Kye pick a prize!!! He originally had a stuffed animal. Ugh. Zach and I can’t stand them. So I found this ball which was much cheaper anyway and he was excited about it. Very successful shopping trip 😉

We left the zoo by 1:30 so we could get back to the hotel for feeding time! It wasn’t the smoothest experience ever…but I think that is just how life goes as you add more and more children to your bunch. There will ALWAYS be some glitches, right? At least we all had a fun time and no one (permanently) got lost 😉 I do recommend the Jacksonville Zoo! Just remember to sneak in your own food, bring cash, and keep a CLOSE EYE on your kid at the play ground area!!!

Emily Parker

4 Comments

  1. Danielle P
    March 7, 2012 / 1:02 am

    I also scarf down my food except when we eat at home. Jason was trained to eat fast so at home I take my time knowing he will finish first 🙂 I m going to add this zoo to my list of future vacays! We fly into JAX when we visit Jason's family so now I have something to add to those trips!

  2. Matisha Barajas
    March 7, 2012 / 1:56 pm

    Looks like you guys had a great time.  I love the pic with Kye on your husbands shoulders.

  3. Rachael_Copponex
    March 8, 2012 / 2:53 pm

    Macy has about 15 "puppets"  You would go bananas.  I hope for your sake Britt doesn't like babies like Macy does!

  4. Meg
    May 20, 2012 / 3:33 am

    You hate stuffed animals?! What?!  🙂  

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