Heading to the Zoo!

Nothing excites the kids like our annual trip to the zoo.  We went with all of our cousins (except Cooper) this year, so while we were waiting for everyone, we took a family picture.  You'll notice Zach has his eyes closed in this one, but since Tate was visibly screaming in all of the others, this was the best we got.  Not a good start to our zoo experience!

Luckily, once we got inside everyone seems to settle down and we had a very fun time.  Our first stop was to see the monkeys, then we headed to the elephants.  Tate had been waiting and waiting to see them, but when it was time to actually get up to the fence, he couldn't bring himself to get any closer than 2 or 3 feet.  We tried to tell him that they were behind another fence a good 6-8 feet away from the first fence, but he wasn't buying it.

And since I couldn't actually get him to turn around (he needed to keep an eye on them for some reason), Jeremiah ended up having to hold him to get a picture.  But even then he was constantly looking behind him to make sure that elephant wasn't going to somehow reach him.

Hailey and Branson were more than happy to pose for a picture!

Libby was really funny, she kept giving me these mad faces every time I tried to take her picture.

I did luck out and get this one when she wasn't paying attention.

These 5 were buddies and hung out together basically the whole time at the zoo.  They were like the 5 musketeers!

Here's a picture of my 3 kids, again Tate wouldn't get too close to the fence, just in case.

We love the new Rocky Shores exhibit, it's so fun to see the seals ...

... And the polar bears.  The kids love watching the polar bear swim around and pop up right next to the window.

 It was pretty neat to watch.

And then we were able to see a grizzly bear cooling off in the water.

After our visit to Rocky Shores, we decided to break for lunch.  We found a shaded spot and dug into our lunches.  At some point Jeremiah turned around his hat and Tate as the ultimately "daddy's shadow" decided to follow his lead.

He loves being just like his Dad.

One of my favorite animals to see is always the giraffes. We were lucky enough to have them all outside when we saw them.  A large one and 3 smaller ones.

They really are amazing creatures!

Again, Tate wanted to admire them from afar.

Hailey wasn't shy and wanted a picture of her with the giraffes.

Zach indulged me as well.

 No too much later, it was time to ride the carousel.  Tate was definitely having an off day because he opted for the stationary peacock bench.

Zach has been learning about our country at Scouts and loved the Bald Eagle as our national bird, so it made complete sense when I saw which animal he chose.

Hailey was fine with anything she told me, it was more whom she was riding next to rather than on.  So she ended up on a cheetah happily situated between Jocelyn and Mylee.

And of course the kids love to get a picture next to the metal gorilla, so I had to include that as well.  Tate flipped out when we walked up to it, so there was no way we were getting him in that one.  Oh well, it was par for the course with him that day.

We definitely had a wonderful time at the zoo and even Tate is asking when we get to go back again.  Maybe the next trip he will be a little more relaxed.  But regardless, it was a fun day.