Wintry trip to the zoo!

The day after Christmas we had our first family-of-4-trip-to-the-zoo!  I have been with both kids a couple of times when I can get in for free with our friend's guest passes (kids under 3 are free, so Ty still qualifies for another couple of weeks).  But we've never gone with both kids AND daddy, since he's usually working.  A few months ago there was a Groupon (gotta love it) for the zoo, so I bought 2 adult passes knowing both kids would still get in free.  It was so fun to have daddy with us!!!  Plus, I'd never been during the winter months, and even though some of the animals weren't out in their habitats, it was neat to see them in their "winter" habitats indoors.  For some animals, like the giraffes, that meant we saw them really close up since they were inside - cool to see how tall they REALLY are instead of seeing them from a distance.  Anyway, it turned out to be a gorgeous day, and pretty warm, so walking around the snowy zoo paths with barely anyone else there was so great.  Oh, and another bonus was that the kids got to use their new Radio Flyer wagon that they got for Christmas!  Having the little storage bin on the back worked perfectly - didn't have to carry around a diaper bag and it was just enough room for the day's essentials.

Loving our new wagon!

The animals were so pretty sitting in the snow!

The kid is a waver.  He waves and says hi to all of the animals.

And Jersey pretty much just sits in there and smiles and makes little sing-song noises :)

Okay, this was actually a little bit creepy...  We were inside the primates exhibit and a few seconds after Ty walked up to the glass, this little guy charged the window and was banging on the glass and screaming at Tyson with barred teeth!  Ty jumped a little bit, but I think I was the one that was trying not to freak out, lol!  He was totally attacking Tyson through the window and I had never seen that happen before.  Of course, both parents are trying to laugh it off and making lame comments like, "Oh look buddy!  He's talking to you!"  Yeah, right....he's actually trying to eat you but he can't get through the window, lol!!!  That was a new zoo experience...

After a while JJ REALLY wanted to get down, so inside one of the rain forest parts Robin got her out of the wagon for a while.  Silly girl - I keep telling her if she'd just start walking, life would be a lot more fun when we're out and about!  The walked with Robin's fingers and crawled a little bit before we put her back in her seat.

Basically pulling daddy as she tries to walk.

It was impossible to keep her still!  She's a mover...now if she would just be a WALKER we'd all be happier ;-)

It was kind of cool to see the penguins swimming around with their habitat all snowy and icy - actually looked like what their natural habitat probably looked like sometimes, lol.

Doesn't Tyson look thrilled in this picture!?  He wasn't too happy that mommy kept wanting to stop and take pictures...too many animals he wanted to see.

We brought lunch for the kids, but went inside the zoo cafe to take some layers off and eat inside.  Sometimes I can't picture doing things like this with three kids!!!  We already have our hands full when the ratio is one adult to one kid, ha ha.  Even just sitting at lunch we were all having a good time.  Everyone loved having daddy there with us.

First born, worker bee, always wants to help pull the wagon...

Starting to get a little sleepy...  She missed her whole morning nap so we could go out, but she did great despite being so tired!

Aaaaand then she hit a wall, and fell asleep on the side of the wagon.  Haaa ha ha!!!  It was so cute.  She actually fell asleep with her eyes closed for a while, but woke up before we could get a picture of that ;-)

After her little power nap she woke back up and got out of the wagon for a while again.  She loved the fish tanks!

And she REALLY loved standing up to the tanks that went down to the floor so she could see the fish swimming around, and stand by her brother :)

Even though the giraffes didn't SMELL that great being inside, I loved seeing them up close!  They are so tall and unique looking...God must have had so much fun creating such amazing creatures.

And there you have it, our wintry tour of the zoo!  I knew it would be fun, but for some reason, the day was even better than I thought :)  Kids did great, weather was beautiful and warm, the zoo was almost empty, and Robin was there to help me with the kids and take turns pulling our new wagon.  Blessed by family days like this...and so glad we have a digital camera to capture the memories!  Pretty crazy to think that by this summer we'll have 3 kids to haul around on our outings.  Yikes!