A Visit to the Zoo

Since September we have had annual passes to the zoo, but we haven't used it all that much since it is about an hour away. I hate making the drive by myself and by the time Anthony gets home and we drive there it would only be a few hours before closing time. I'm trying to make a goal for myself to go at least once a month so that we can get our money's worth out of the pass. A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to go and invited my friend and her two kids to come with us. It was great to have someone to talk to during the drive and James loved seeing all the animals with his friends! It made me even more determined to go more often. So the next week I was brave and made the drive by myself, just me and James!

I have always had a hard time driving on the interstate, but this trip really made me realize why. When I don't have anyone to talk to or distract me, the entire time I anxiously think about crashing or running off the road, or the car getting a flat tire. I constantly have a video of all the different crash scenarios running through my brain, my heart rate skyrockets, and I have to keep talking myself down. It is definitely a lot better than it used to be (just getting on the interstate used to do that to me, now it is just long car trips to unfamiliar places by myself. See? Progress!) but I am really proud of myself for forcing myself to do it last week. We had a blast!

We got there 10 minutes after they opened, and the place was basically ours. James wanted out of the stroller most of the time so he could run around and look at everything. All the exhibits were "Whoa!!" and "Cool!" and "Oh yeah!!!" :) We saw the rhinos, the giraffes, tons of birds and walked through the aviary. We saw gators and crocodiles, deer, tons of different types of monkeys, and we even got to see the otters this time! (They seem to never be out the last few times we have gone) We saw the jaguar which was neat, but there was a huge crowd in front of the viewing glass and everyone was going "Awwww" and I couldn't figure out why, so we just moved on. Come to find out, they just had a baby jaguar cub and I missed it!!! Next time I want to see that cutie pie!

We rode the train and James loved it! He couldn't get over that he was on a real train! At one point, there wasn't really anything to look at and James randomly giggled and said "Ha! Nee! (Train)" We got to see Lemur island, the ostriches, and the camels, which you can only see from the train. The ostriches got crazy close to the train, close enough to make you a little uncomfortable :)

After a few hours, James was getting stir crazy and seemed to be done looking at things so we headed over to the wade pools/splash park for the first time. He was really hesitant at first, but after watching the other kids and getting used to the idea he loved it!! He didn't want to leave!

We had so much fun, we will definitely be visiting more often, especially since the weather is getting so warm. Pretty soon that drive will be so familiar it will be a piece of cake for me! (Hopefully :)