A Visit to the Zoo

The day after Mallory's birthday, Gma and I took the girls to the zoo.  Once we scaled the steps that led from the parking lot, we decided to get a map so that we wouldn't get lost, and so we could make sure we saw all of the animals that Addie wanted to see.  While Gma and Addie took a pit stop, Mallory and I checked out the map.

We decided to start at the farm.  There were donkeys, goats, an alpaca, a petting zoo, and two cows that were out.  One of the cows was pretty close to the fence, so I took Mallory out to see if she would touch it.  No such luck.  She clung on for dear life.  But she did enjoy looking at it from a distance. 

Next, we decided to look at the cats.  We walked up from the farm and into the big cat area.  There was one tiger out, but he was really hard to see.  We saw a few smaller cats and then made our way around to the lions.  There were 4 lion males out.  There are three young males (21 months old), and one adult male.  They were playing around and both girls had a fun time watching them. 

Since they were out of their strollers, I decided to take a few snapshots of the two of them.  I took a few of Mallory first.  These crack me up!

Then, I took a few of them together.  (I put a 60s filter on the first ones using Picasa.) 

Some of the other children caught their attention.  This picture so reminds me of my cousin Amanda and me when we were little. 

Then, we trekked up the big hill, ate some lunch. Gma had a pigeon "bless" her while we were eating.  Mallory devoured her lunch plus most of the crust of Gma's pizza.  We poured some more water in the girl's glasses and headed off to the elephants.  I was kind of disappointed with the elephants.  It's been a while since I've been to the zoo, but some of the best attractions for kids (elephants, giraffes, seals, etc.) were closed for construction.  The elephants are still striking and majestic, but you don't get that WOW factor when you watch them from so far off.  

We then looped around, and finally got to the zebras.  Addie was asking for them all day.  She was super excited to see them.

We stopped at the gift shop on the way out to get the girls stuffed animals.  Addie picked out a zebra immediately.  I gave Mallory the choice of a tiger (since it looks like her buddy Ziggy) and a lion.  She pointed to the lion, said "lion" and grinned.  We picked the lion.  :-)  Both girls clung to their stuffed animals on the way out (I'm upset I didn't get a picture of that cuteness).  We stopped by the monkey house one more time because Addie wanted to see them again, and then headed home. 

Both girls slept most of the way home.  It was a busy and exciting adventure for the four of us! :-)