The Day the Animals Came Out to Play

A certain little lady up above was giddy as ever last week. I'll give you two guesses why. ;) We took our second annual October zoo trip to OKC last week. Nanny had the brilliant idea to spend a fall Friday playing with the animals! Lil Red and I had been logging extra hours in her playroom with her zoo animals learning the sounds and names during the week prior to our trip. The drive there couldn't have been more peaceful. Here's the kicker....Hal didn't have to stop for potty breaks. Not a one!! The three of us girls met Aunt Kylie at Olive Garden for a delicious lunch where Hal dined on spaghetti noodles, shrimp and meatball. She put on a show by sucking down her super long noodles as fast as she could. I could watch this all day.... 

Wild woman had a very active lunch (best term I could come up with) and we did our best to keep up with her. So far things were going great and it continued that way for the rest of the day. As I said about 15,700 times that day "BEST ZOO DAY EVER!!" 

Why was it the "best zoo day ever"??, you ask. Because we saw actual animals. Real life animals that weren't too busy sleeping in a cave or cooling off in a hole....animals that were out and about in the cool fall weather and didn't mind showing off for the zoo-goers that day. Us four ladies set our sights on the elephants first but got mighty distracted by all of the creatures that decided to say "hello". Mr. Rhino was our first friend of the day and Hal was mesmerized by how close we came to her by the fence. And so was I frankly considering all of our recent trips to the zoo have involved staring at chain link fences and empty cages. Note to self: go to the zoo in October. 

Cute lil guy 

Beep beep!

We rounded the corner and spotted a family of red pigs. The four new little babies were following close behind their momma and it was a sight to see. I'm sure Mr. Giraffe could also see the little pigs over the fence with his long neck and all....

"Best zoo day ever" was said again as we discovered that we were just in time for the giraffe feeding. Hallie parked her car and dug around for some spare change to buy some leaves for her friend....

"Glad I brought my allowance today"

While we were waiting to feed Hallie spotted a "turk", one of her normal neighborhood friends....

Bored with the "turk" she turned her sights toward the sweet creatures waiting for some treats. Meet Miss Ella....

"Let's get this show on the road"

Another famished guy came stalking up to the fence while Hallie waited patiently in line...

Lil Miss and Aunt Kylie were handed "I fed the giraffes" buttons that they wore with pride....

Ready to go!

Well, sort of. I was so proud of how brave she was in Nanny's arms as the big guy leaned down and stuck out his giant tongue for a snack. Her face says it all though....

My favorite picture of the day:

How rude!

Kylie took her turn feeding the greens to our greedy friend....

What a fun experience for our little gal to have! I was loving the up close-ness of the beautiful animals....

The fella came over and nudged the zookeeper, gave him a giraffe version of a hug and requested more treats. They had their own zoo language....

Hal was just as mesmerized as the adults were....

She just sat on her knees and watched in wide-eyed wonder.....

And when she still hadn't had enough the little gal got into a more comfortable position....

We gave some reluctant goodbyes to our Madagascar friend but thankfully had another one right down the road hanging out fairly close to the fence....

Right next door to Mr. Zebra was a no nonsense ostrich who was clearly in charge of the pack...

Next we spotted a black bear and a pack of wolves. Hal was a tad on the frightened side by these animals...

But she looked on from afar as the wolves stalked by creepily....

It took some convincing but we finally got her and Nanny on the baby giraffe statue....

She was more than willing to stick her head through the zoo sign though...

The "dion keen" statue drew her in....

And of course the signs sparked her interest. I will never understand her interest in signs. Signs of all kinds. We must read them all. ;)

We spent some time just hangin' with the monkeys and gorillas.....

"Y'all are making me sleepy!"

This guy put on quite the acrobatic show

Next up: the ELEPHANTS! She was so excited once she and Nanny spotted the baby. "Baby! Momma! Baby!"

We had a little bit of a spill on the elephant exhibit ramp which brought a few tears. She was just way too excited, I guess....

"Best zoo day ever!!!" Why? Because this girl was so very happy.....

I told her to go stand by the duck. Ha!

Goofball

More signs to read!

We bought some food for the ducks and catfish....

She kept requesting "more momma more!!!"

The four of us wound our way through some tall bamboo chutes. Nanny was the only "approved" Hallie carrier or car-pusher of the day. Kylie and I were not allowed to push or carry and Hallie made it clear that we were not good car pushers. Nanny's got skills....

Despite her sassyness about wearing her coat and staying in her car when asked to, I couldn't have asked for a sweeter girl to spend the day with. No fits, no screaming, no crying. I was in mommy heaven!

We made our way through the rest of the zoo and had just as much luck with seeing plenty of animals out and about....

The flamingos were looking mighty orange that day. I guess Hal didn't get the orange memo though. Unless her hair counts. ;)

We finished up our zoo encounters at the Children's Zoo. I was amazed that she had made it until 3:00 without a nap and was still going strong....

Here's a few of the animals she found in the Children's Zoo area....

Hey, hey we're the monkeys!

This encounter wasn't too friendly. Hallie told him where he could go....

"Get back in your cage!"

Kylie held Hal while they petted the goats. The goats are definitely an animal Hal can live without....

We distracted her from the inevitable exit from the zoo by letting her ride a couple of the rides on our way out. I couldn't get over how big she looked riding the baby carousel all by herself life a pro with a huge smile on her pretty face....

Lil lion booty ;)

Naptime!

Zoo girl was out cold in three minutes and no longer. Amazingly enough she stayed asleep in her seat for nearly two hours, woke up and watched a little Mickey Mouse and stayed occupied for the remainder of the trip. One potty stop and she was all good! If you are wondering, YES, I did pinch myself after we returned home. What was the equation that equaled a perfect trip to the zoo? I guess I'll never know. But I must say it one last time.......BEST ZOO DAY EVER!!!!!! Big thanks to Nanny for driving, lunch, zoo tickets and a day of fun! And thanks to Aunt Kylie to driving to meet us there again this year!!! Hal is one lucky gal. :)