Seeing the Animals at the Zoo

Now that the summer is over and school has started, it's the end of our weekly get togethers with our cousins, Aunts, and Nana. It's been sad since we've had so much fun doing so many things this summer. Lucky for us, there were a few things that we still had planned to do, but didn't get around to doing them, so we have been doing a few things on Saturdays. This last Saturday, we finally made it to the zoo. The kids have been looking forward to this all summer long and couldn't wait to go!

It was a big day for the zoo - it was the first day that they were letting people see the new baby elephant born just a month ago. We didn't know about it, but were so excited to see the little elephant. He was so cute and we spent about 15 minutes just watching him play with his mom and with a little ball they had in the pen.


Here's a picture of Zach in front of one of the other elephants - it was really bright, so that picture is pretty dark. That gray blob next to the tree behind him is the elephant.


Here's a picture of all 4 kids in front of the camels - sorry about the dark picture again. It was one of the few times we actually got all 4 kids to hold still long enough for a picture!


The monkeys were definitely a favorite - the kids loved to watch them jump, hop, and swing along the trees and branches.


Zach really loved this wall where he could measure up to a gorilla. He thought it was so funny that his arm span was so much shorter. Hailey of course had to measure herself too!


Hailey and Branson spent most of the day holding hands - those two are hilarious when they get together. Poor Branson is usually pulled along by Hailey, but he's getting wise and did his fair share of pulling Hailey around. One time there was actually a tug-o-war as they both wanted to go in different directions.


One of our favorite things to do at the zoo is see the Bird Show. They have all different types of birds that peform and fly over the heads of the audience. The kids love it and were so excited. Here they all are with Nana - waiting for the show to start.


They also had a baby giraffe out for us to see. Hailey loved all the babies and thought the baby giraffe and baby elephant were really neat.


The kids absolutely loved watching the giraffes eat. Zach, being the brave soul he is, really wanted to pet one.


Here's a picture of Hailey and Branson in front of the zebras. I tried to get a picture of Zach and Ashton, but they were too busy running from animal to animal to get a good picture - the ones I did get were all blurry. Hailey and Brans thought these zebras were really neat with all their stripes.


And lastly, a little family photo in front of the fountains.



We were definitely tired by the time we left, but boy did we have a great time!