First Time at the Zoo!

I ought to and will blog more about Christmas break and the adventures therein, but one adventure deserves its own blog post. Angel and I decided to take our first mini-roadtrip with the two boys to visit a zoo on the mainland. One of the things I get really excited about when I think about our kids is how they have so many "first" amazing experiences ahead of them. Everything from something as simple as a first watching of a great movie....to a first visit to their own passport country. Going to the zoo is another big first to experience with them!

I had very hazy memories of visiting this zoo about a decade ago...and said memories primarily involved the fact that there were wild monkey ON and IN one of the public bathrooms (not zoo monkeys, but the monkeys that are native to our region).  That was a somewhat alarming memory. The ticket price for the zoo is very low compared to "touristy" attractions in our local region, which also had my expectations low, but I figured if there was any time to visit, it was with a 22 month old who has never seen "zoo" types of animals. Perhaps it was my already low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by the zoo, and found the overall experience one of the highlights of the semester break. It was such fun to just be able to take our little family on an adventure!

We were up and out of the house before 6 a.m., so we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast once we reached the mainland, and then proceeded down the road. Cyrus doesn't really eat much at McDonald's, so it was a good thing I'd packed a bag of snacks for the road.

We arrived right before opening, which was our plan, as we knew that dealing with wandering the zoo during the heat of the day would not be fun. I carried Glenn in the Ergo while Cyrus rode in the stroller, but I think he really had no idea what was going on. The chimpanzees were the first big animal we came to that he could see, and they were very active. An employee walked by, clapping and shouting at one chimp, who was responding to him, and Cyrus watched closely and then tried to follow him and mimic his clapping at the chimp. It was so cute how excited he was getting!

When we passed by the playground, of course we had to stop. Isn't there some old adage like, "A kid's favorite part of the zoo is the playground equipment"? You can see in the photo it's pretty dingy...but Cyrus had a blast, before we put him back in the stroller so he could actually see more animals.

This is what most of my photos from the zoo are: my baby standing and staring in wonder at some cool creatures. I've got a video attached below that has a pretty funny scene with him and this giraffe.

I didn't take any pictures, but throughout the whole zoo, Angel was antsy to find the lions, because we kept hearing occasional roars. I thought maybe it was just some taped audio being projected around the zoo, although that seemed a little bit too high tech...but no, when we finally found the lions (we didn't have a map, so were just wandering the trails), they were indeed roaring!

Glenn was perfect for the zoo...by which, I mean that he slept in his carrier the whole time.

We took some video--I think the highlights are Cyrus's giraffe encounter and his moment of sheer bliss as he attempts to run through a flock of birds (you may recall he's had a fascination with birds for most of his life thus far).


Also, to go along with the video and news from Christmas break, over the break, my family decided to resurrect the youtube channel, so if you haven't already, you can go over to youtube to subscribe and see more--plans are to include a variety of travel/life abroad vlogs as well as homeschool and DIY-type videos...basically blending our passions and skills along with just life as a big family.