Day at the Zoo

Last weekend, we went south to visit with Jonathan's parents. We had planned to go to the zoo the last time we were there, but it didn't work out, so we made sure it happened this trip. Saturday morning, we got an early start and had a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel. We ordered the kids pancakes, but they came with apples and whip cream all over them. Abbey ate the apples, and William ended up eating all of Gail's plain pancakes! I will be sure to order differently the next time! So anyway, the Lowry Park Zoo is rated the #1 zoo for kids, and we were eager to see how the kids would like it, even though we know they're still a bit young to understand everything. They did enjoy some animals and there were a lot of them to see, but by far, their favorite part was the fountains. You can tell by the pictures, where we spent the majority of our time!

We made a stop at the carousel and the kids loved that. William rode on a "horse" as he calls zebras and Abbey rode on a manatee. She was doing great sitting up and being excited until the thing started moving. Then she threw one arm around me, hunkered down and held on with a death grip! Her face was tight and filled with terror at first, but then when she decided she liked it, she let out a scream (literally) of relief and delight. She did like it, but she made sure to keep a real tight grip on me. And of course, she cried when we had to get off.

So after that it was off to the kids' area and the fountains!! I had packed the kids' swimsuits and all that, since I knew we'd probably be there a while. However, I was met with some resistance, from all sides, when I tried to change them before they got their clothes soaking wet. So, we let them get totally drenched and then when it was time to leave, we put them into their swimsuits, because those were the only dry clothes they had! Yes, it's backwards, I know, but some days that's how things go!

So then before lunch, since it was right beside the fountains, we took them through the petting zoo. I don't think they were too interested in it, probably because they were getting hungry and tired. There were these funny goats though, that had a little walkway up to a roof where they could be fed. William noticed them right away and wanted to make the cups go up.

After that, we headed to a nice, cool eating area and had a good lunch. I think we were all about ready to go by then, but Jonathan wanted to take the kids through the Africa area, where they would see the zebras, giraffes, and other animals from the movie, Madagascar. It was a good ways from where we were at the time, even though it ended up being right behind where we ate. Since we had sunblock issues earlier in the day (I won't even talk about that!) and Abbey didn't have many clothes on, I wanted to find a little t-shirt for her. So, we got a shirt, we made it to "Africa," but by this time we're carrying both kids (I've got William) and we were SO HOT and wanting some ice cream or at least something to drink! Ed and Gail stayed back with the stroller, so I didn't have my camera, which was a bummer, because we went up to the place where you could feed the giraffes. We didn't have our money with us either, so we couldn't buy a giraffe cracker (for 2 bucks - ripoff!!), but William didn't care about having food for the giraffes. We were really close to them, but he made his way right up to them and petted one on the face! We were amazed! I wished I had my camera for that! Oh well, we know it happened! So, it took us a while to find Ed & Gail after that and by this time Abbey was asleep on Jonathan and I had twisted my ankle - twice. And that's my 'good' ankle too! We were all very ready to go, even though we still hadn't seen everything. We had a good time and I think we got our $20 ticket's worth. Next time we're in Lakeland though, I think we'll just take the kids to Barnett Park and let them run around in the fountains for free!! :)