Happy St. Patrick's Day! We spent ours at Zoo Atlanta! Thank you Nana and Kaleb for joining us on this first, and amzazing, trip to the zoo!! Thank goodness it didn't rain (after the news threatened it all week), for Friday night I told Brooklynn that we might not get to go to the zoo because it was going to rain and we'd have to go to Jump for Joey (inflatable play area) instead. She flat out told me, "No mommy, I want to go to the zoo and ride the train with Kaleb." Hahaha! I felt awful because we had hyped up the zoo all week, so I'm glad it ended up being a beautiful day!
Oh you should have heard Kaleb and Brooklynn in the car on the way to the zoo! The air was full of excitement as they sang and clapped and made up songs about going to the zoo! Renee and I got just excited as they were as we made our way to Zoo Atlanta. When we pulled into the parking lot they couldn't get out of the car fast enough. Our first stop after we made it through the gates was at the flamingo habitat. They were fascinated, and so was I since I had no idea that flamingos squaked! Oh, and Kaleb found a flamingo that only had one leg so we talked about how God made that flamingo special:).
The flamingo habitat:
This was my favorite part. The look on Brooklynn's face when she saw that elephant for the first time was awesome. She was fascinated and didnt' want to stop looking at it:
Next we went into the bird atrium and Brooklynn and Kaleb held tiny sticks with bird seeds stuck to them. The birds landed right next to us and they had so much fun feeding the birds! It was such a great experience:
Ofcourse we had to stop and stick our faces in the tiger photo display (how could we possible miss it??)! I love how Brooklynn stuck her hands by her face to hold on! I told Kaleb to give me his best tiger growl (he nailed it):
Our next stop was the lemur habitat and they were so cute! I couldn't get over how the sit just like little humans. It was quite exciting because we got to see one eat a carrot and then walk across the entire rope:
Next to the lemur's was another little atrium where we got to see more exotic birds and ducks. By the exhibit was a nest for photo taking and we ran into two couples that were from out of town that had Brooklynn and Kaleb flapping their arms and opening their mouths like baby birds! It was hilarious!
Another monkey exhibit was next:
So after all this monkey business Kaleb and Brooklynn just had to try to climb on the very next tree they came across! Poor little Brooklynn didn't find a tree as cool as Kaleb's so she threw a temper tantrum (this was right around her normal napping hour):
She ended up being okay with using the fence post as her tree:
After we went to the gorilla habitat we had to take a picture on the Willie B statue. This is one of my favorie pictures all day! They are so cute!
Checking out the otters (that you couldn't get a good look at since they were napping):
We told them to shake their bum bums, and ofcourse the accomodated our request:
The favorite habitat had to have been the orangatan (pretty sure I just slaughtered the spelling of that word, so my apologies). They were highly entertaining! Swinging and playing and hanging upsidedown! We laughed so hard at them!
Our next stop was the mole exhibit, which was incredibly uneventful since we saw zero moles. Hahaha! However, the kiddos got to play and go through the mole playground (where Brooklynn got halfway through one of the tunnels and freaked out):
From there we went to the reptile habitat, which was great because it was indoors and air conditioned!
Brooklynn did not get out of the stroller at all and was giving me quite a "tude" so I asked her to say cheese and give me her best grouch face:
Outside the reptile building they had two chairs with machined foot massagers! I thought that was a great idea, but I loved the artwork behind it more than the chairs:
The kimono dragon habitat (forced myself on them for some pictures):
Next was the panda area and we saw one big lazy panda! Haha! He was so cute!
One of the highlights of our trip was the petting zoo! I never realzied how much personality goats had! Brooklynn and Kaleb had so much fun petting and brushing them. The goat with his legs in the hay holder cracked me up! Even funnier was the goat that jumped up on the tree stump! Haha! I couldn't get over that!
They loved the kangaroos! They were lazy at first but ended up getting around and showing their jumping skills. Kaleb and Brooklynn laughed so hard watching them jump around:
Next we decided to ride on the carousel and Brooklynn absolutely loved it! We ended up riding on it four or five times:
One of the best parts of the day was getting to ride the train! Brooklynn loves trains and had so much fun riding through the park and waving at other kids. Renee and I loved the train because we got to sit down and relax! Hahaha!
Here are some of the sites we saw while riding on the train (check out the gigantic turtle):
After the train ride they wanted to play on the playground. The zoo has a fantastic playground for kids, and the see saw was the favorite!
Our last stop was the souvenir shop. Brooklynn cracked me up with the tiger hat!
We had such a wonderful experience at the zoo! I can't wait to go back! Brooklynn came home and passed out after such a long and fun day!
