Zoo Trip

Jason took off from work one day last week so we could take the kids to the Cameron Park Zoo before the crowds of summer hit. We went on a Tuesday, and it was fantastic! Gorgeous weather, only a handful of people in the entire park.

On the car ride there, we each talked about what animals we were the most excited to see. Norah was looking forward to "the owls and the giraffes". Jason said his favorites were always the monkeys. I was most excited about the otters, and Eli couldn't stop talking about the elephants. It made for fun conversation in the car, and it was interesting to see hear everyone state their case about why they chose their specific animal.

The CP Zoo made quite a few changes since our last visit. There was a new oriental exhibit with some cool tile chimes (the kids could jump on the tiles and each one played a different tone). As well as swinging ropes, and lots of fun statues to climb on and pose with.

The only down side was that the price had gone up quite a bit...but I guess even the zoo has to keep up with the economic situation.





Eli (finally) got to see his precious elephants. They were toward the end of the path, so by the time we reached them, E was almost too exhausted to care.


Poor Norah just couldn't grasp the tee-pee presence at the zoo. (They were outside the Bison exhibit) She has asked me at least six times since our trip, "Mommy, why didn't we get to see the Indians at the zoo?" Don't worry. I think we've resolved the issue (after much explanation and discussion of Native American history.)

At the end of the day, we stopped in the gift shop and let the kids each choose something to remember their day by. Eli went for small plastic tube filled with trees and jungle animals (including an elephant!). Norah, naturally, chose the only pink item in the store...a flamingo!

She really enjoyed seeing them in real life too, as well as learning that they are pink in color because of their high-shrimp/algae diet. The carotene found in shrimp and algae causes the flamingos' feathers to have that distinct pink color. (She has shared this important information with almost anyone who cares to listen to her)


It was a wonderful day of family fun, and I look forward to our next trip. The kids are such great travelers, and these little mini-vacations make for great artistic inspiration for Norah. (Please note our family of four, taking in the site of a majestic giraffe, depicted above)

Its All Happening at the Zoo

Last Saturday, we took Norah for her first-ever zoo experience! The Cameron Park Zoo in Waco was the venue for our animal expedition, and we loved it! It was the perfect size (not too big, but not so small that it didn't have any cool animals) and very shady. I loved that it was built in the middle of tall trees and right alongside the Brazos river.

We arrived around 11am, so the parking lot was full and we had to park at a nearby school. The greatest part was, we were shuttled from our car, right up to the zoo entrance! No walking for us! Here's a shot of Norah on her first-ever bus ride. She cracked up the other passengers because she kept shrieking her high-pitched, "Weeeee!!!" with every bump or turn.



The first animal we got to see was our national bird. This was pretty cool for all of us, because none of us had ever seen a bald eagle up close before, and the Cameron zoo had two of them. They are so much bigger than I imagined! Norah thought they were pretty cool, too.

We walked a little further down the path and found these two butterflies. We named one "Happy Fly" and one "Grumpy Fly". I'll let you do the math on that one.

Just past the butterflies, there was a cute ladybug family. The daddy ladybug had a small growth on his shoulder, but at least it was a cute one.










Norah loved the huge aquariums. I think they were her favorite part. She really enjoyed being able to look eye-to-eye with the tuh-tulls (turtles) and feesh (fish).















There was a glass wall were you could watch a black bear take a dip. He was a very social bear. He kept swimming right up to the place we were standing and pressing his nose up against the glass (see the nose prints to the left of his face?) Norah really liked watching him swim, but got a little startled when he pressed his nose up against where hers was!






Just past the bear, there was an otter aquarium. There was a hole going right through the aquarium where kids could slide down and watch the otters through the glass slide. The otters seemed to love watching the kids. AA took Norah down the slide. We couldn't decide which of them had more fun! (We joked that AA was lucky to finally have an "excuse" to go down the kids rides, because we all knew she was dying to try the slide)










They had a great African Savannah exhibit. Here is Norah giraffe-watching with Daddy. The exhibit was on a bridge, so when the giraffes came close, you were almost at their eye-level. One of the cool things about this zoo was that there were very few tall fences. They relied more on short electric fences so that your view was very clear, and you almost felt like you were right there with the animals.





Our last stop was to the gift shop. We had to see what our little explorer would look like in this swank safari hat. AA spoiled her with a little toy giraffe, which she still hasn't stopped carrying around! We also bought her a stuffed owl, since when she saw them in the zoo barn, she was quick to identify them as, "Owls" and began to say, "Whoo Whoo".













Norah was a trooper all day. She never fussed, and really seemed to love every minute of seeing the animals. Jason and I laughed when we turned the first corner leaving the zoo and noticed that Norah was already passed out asleep. She slept the entire car ride home with owl and "gwaaff" by her side.

It was such a great experience. I can't wait until our next trip!