Maiden Trip to the Zoo

Sunday was a day that Hallie has dreamed about for eight months now.

The day that Baby Einstein came to life. ;)

We made our way toward the zoo on Sunday afternoon and met my dad, Aunt B and Spencer there. I think everybody else in Oklahoma had the same idea that we had..."hey, let's go to the zoo." The parking lot was a madhouse but we finally made our way to the entrance with an excited baby strolling along. Hallie was taking in all of the kiddos surrounding her and practicing her big smile for Gman. The weather could not have been more perfect...as my Aunt Lisa put it..."I think an angel ordered it from heaven for Hallie's first trip to the zoo." Yes, yes she did. :)

We met our fellow zoo-goers at the entrance and were off to take in the animals. Hallie enjoyed a pre-animal snack while she was lathered in sun screen....

"If I eat my ticket, will they still let me in?"

We had a difficult time finding animals that were large enough or close enough for Hallie to focus her eyes on. If the animal wasn't moving, then she wasn't seeing it. Lol. The camoflauged animals weren't helping our case any either....

The first animal that she actually locked eyes on was the tortouse. She watched him munch of some lunch and stared in amazement....

The ducks sparked her interest a bit as they bathed in the water....

The flamingos, not so much.

Hallie gave Gman a dose of the best medicine....lots of smiles and silly babbling. He spent part of the time toting the munchkin around until she got a tad bit too heavy and on the verge of getting sunburned.

How do I fight the sun? With a huge sun hat of course!

"I feel like the laughing stock of the zoo...I look like a flying nun"

Silly girl was snoozing through the most exciting exhibit of the day. The brand new elephant habitat showed off two gorgeous big fellas who were snacking on some food from up above and cooling off in the heat by swimming and throwing dirt on their backs.

Awake again but ready for some lunch. She was missing all the animals. Or was she??? I must say that we spent a lot of the day commenting on the lack of animals in the zoo. I can't remember how many times we walked all the way to an exhibit only to find NO animal in it. Poo. Literally, all that was left was poo. No animals to oogle at. We spent most of the day hunting down LARGE animals so that she would be able see them. I guess it was no skin off her back because she spent 75% of the afternoon just relaxin' in her stroller.....

We did pry her out of the stroller long enough to get a family photo with our little elephant on the baby elephant. You can't see it very well but she is giving a big ol' grin through her binky mouth.....

Favorite animal of the day: the orangutans. They put on a show swinging from ropes and using the logs up above as monkey bars. Hallie was transfixed on the older one who hung from the ropes and stared out at the crowd as if to say "you lookin' at me?"

I think she wanted to end on a good note after she enjoyed the swinging creatures so she passed out for a nap and slept through the remainder of the trip. The sun must have zapped her. She missed out on.....

The bears

The beaver

Alligators

Monkeys

See what I mean....zapped.

We finished off the day with dinner at Elephant Bar (which only seemed appropriate) where we drank up all of the water in the place...man, three hours of walking the zoo was exhausting. Hallie enjoyed some baby food all the while trying to reach for food off of Gman's plate. She made sure to flash smiles to everyone walking by...that smile, it's contagious I tell ya.

We are already looking forward to our next trip to the zoo. Hopefully next time she will be able to name the animals, point and actually see what she is supposed to be looking at. Lol. But I think next time it will be in Tulsa or Wichita...and eventually the granddaddy of them all, San Diego.