Mama and I took Nathan and Charlotte to the Dallas Zoo last Friday. Nathan doesn't have school on Fridays so that is always a good day to do our big outings! We started out early and met at Grandma's apartment that morning for a quick visit, and then we headed to the zoo. When I told Nathan we were going to the zoo the night before, he got busy packing up all of his safari animals to take with him. He always has to have a toy that matches whatever it is we are looking at. For example, if he and Wayne are watching football, he gets his football action figure. If we're watching a show about race cars, he gets his cars out. If we're watching a show about crocodiles, he races upstairs to his animal collection to get his crocodile. You get the picture. So Nathan packed up any animals he thought he'd see at the zoo to take with us. He had a stuffed monkey, a snake, a lizard, a zebra, a tiger, and a rhinoceros in his bag :) When you see a big McDonald's sack in the pictures, that is what Nathan chose to keep all of his animals in.
When we first got to the zoo, there was a line of cars waiting to get in. It was a beautiful day so of course it was crowded. I was thinking we were going to have to park at the very back because there were so many cars! Well, the parking attendants were directing us so we just followed where they told us to go. I saw one line of cars going to the left, but we were directed to the right. It turns out that we got lucky! They let about 15 cars (and we were one of them) park on the side of the curb right in front of the entrance!
Our first stop was at the carousel and then we headed to the children's area.
The children's area was a big hit with Nathan and Charlotte. There was a fountain area where the kids splashed around in the water, a petting zoo, a small farm area, a huge aquarium filled with carp, a Discovery House filled with lots of different creatures plus a craft area, a nature center with different rocks, plants and fossils, and the outdoor bird exhibit (but they were closed for lunch while we were there). We stayed in this area for probably an hour! The water was so much fun for Nathan that I think he could have spent his whole time here. In fact, I heard one Dad say to his wife, "We've been here an hour and haven't seen an animal yet!"
The sign at the craft area said to make a Lorakeet. What in the world is a Lorakeet? There wasn't a picture or an example, just written directions, so Nathan and Charlotte made their own version...a new species of bird!
After we were finally able to coax Nathan and Charlotte out of the children's area, we started looking at all of the other animals. The monkeys were the first for us to see, and you can see Nathan got his out too!
And then we went to the new Australian exhibit. They had koalas, wallabies and kangaroos! This exhibit just opened so it was neat to see.
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| In the background, you can see a Kangaroo on the move! |
On our way to find the rhinos, we found the camel rides. Nathan couldn't wait to be able to ride a real camel! When he was waiting his turn, he said very seriously, "Mommy, I'm going to be just like Jesus!"
When we came across the rhinos, Nathan got out his rhinoceros to show the real one.
Next, we found the reptile center. Nathan couldn't wait to go here because he had a snake AND a lizard to hold while he looked.
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| Here he is switching out his animals. |
While we were driving to the zoo, I gave Nathan a small lecture about how he was going to have to be a big boy and do a lot of walking. Since Charlotte is smaller, she would have to ride in the stroller some. We talked about how Mama and I couldn't carry him so if he got tired, we would just stop and rest. He promised me he wouldn't whine or cry or ask us to carry him and that he would be a good boy for us. I was so proud of him because he really was so sweet the whole time. I never really had to get onto him for misbehaving or for not listening to us. He never even ran off from us! But he did talk Charlotte into letting him ride in the stroller for a short time, and she loved pushing him.
At 3:00, re realized we still hadn't ridden the monorail, and that was something Nathan really wanted to do. So we decided to make that our last big thing. But before we rode it, Mama took Nathan and Charlotte to the gift shop for them to pick out a toy. Nathan was so excited! He looked and looked trying to find just the right thing. He loves his animal collection so after lots of pondering, he decided on a hippo and a crocodile. They were very life like and not like the plastic "baby" ones (his words) that he has. Charlotte walked right in and found a purple tiger that she loved. Both of them left very happy! I was so proud of Nathan when he told Mama (without me asking him to do it) "Mama, these animals make me really happy!"
While we waited in line for the monorail, Nathan and Charlotte plopped down on the ground for a rest with their new toys. The monorail ride was really neat because it went through the whole other half of the zoo that we didn't get to. We didn't realize it, but we spent all of our time in the Zoo North section. There's also a Zoo South section! It's also called the Wilds of Africa! At least Nathan got to see parts of it from the monorail, but I know he would have loved to walk through it and see the lions, tigers, and gorillas. It was already 4:00 though, so we had to save that for another time!
We had a great time, but we also learned a valuable lesson...don't stay at the zoo until 4:30 pm and then try to make it home in an hour! The zoo is downtown so we got stuck in the worst rush hour traffic! Not only were we in the usual 5:00 traffic, but it's also a Friday...so no one is working late, and EVERYONE (including us) is heading north to get home! It took us 2 hours! Wayne couldn't believe that neither one of us thought about the traffic downtown at 5:00, and then he said with a sigh, "It's the blind leading the blind when it comes to you two." Ha!
