Family Day At the Zoo

Mom wanted to get out of the house and spend some fun time together as a family.  So for that reason and partly to celebrate Shelby's birthday, we took a trip to the zoo today.  The day was beautiful, even if it was just a tad bit hot.  The zoo had misters going all over the place, and both Hunter and Shelby enjoyed walking s-l-o-w-l-y through them to keep cool.  As you will notice from the pictures, I didn't take very many of the zoo animals, just pretty much my own two.  Most of them were lazing in the shade anyway.  Some of the more interactive and favorite exhibits included the river otters, the Great Barrier Reef (Sharks, Mom!), the giraffes, and the train, log/river, and carousel rides.  Hunter was also pretty fascinated by the Komodo dragon, an elephant skeleton, and a tank of moon jellyfish which made him a little nervous at first.  Probably just too much Finding Nemo recently, but he made Mom touch the glass first to make sure she wouldn't get stung through it.  After that he was ok and really intrigued by how they moved through the water.  Shelby was pretty much just along for the ride.  Her favorite part was probably the carousel ride which produce lots of laughter, bouncing, and squeals.  Dad can't wait to get both her and Hunter to Cedar Point, although that may take awhile for her since she's such a little squirt.

Walking from Franke Park where we had a picnic to the zoo entrance

Riding the tortoise - not very quickly of course

Feeding the geese, ducks and catfish; Shelby is wondering why Dad turned her around so she can't see.

Betcha didn't know that I hatched my kids from an egg!

Riding the endangered species carousel; both kids loved it; Hunter was sure his black panther was the fastest, and Shelby just kept squealing and grinning the biggest grin.

Hunter got to feed the 18 ft. male giraffe some lettuce.  The giraffe is on the ground and we are standing on an elevated platform.  As you can see the giraffe could easily reach over the railing.