Wild Animals Everywhere!!

Since we missed the zoo on Saturday thanks to a quick trip to the doc for Em we decided to head down there Sunday.  Yes, we missed Mass for a trip to the zoo. We figured we were celebrating God by spending the day learning about some of His other creatures.  :-)    The new Giants of the Savanna at the Dallas Zoo is absolutely fantastic.  To know just how incredible it is one must have visited the elephants and giraffes in their previous home at the zoo.  It was  brick building with a fence around it and the outdoor space was no bigger than your standard backyard in suburbia.  Seriously.  The new place is just beautiful and we really enjoyed it.  Well worth the price of admission.  We'll have to go back again before Megan has to pay. 


So our day started at the new exhibit.  The elephants were really up close and personal.  Those "trees" in the pic are concrete but they look so much better than wire fencing, don't you think?  There were two (of the six the Zoo now has) standing up close eating some hay with their trunks.  Em says "EL" when she sees an elephant but I think she was a little surprised by how big they are in person.  She didn't shout out "EL" to the elephants. 

 

Please do not feed your toddlers to the elephants.

The next giant we visited was the giraffe.  We got a very up close and personal visit too!  They've built a deck just high enough for the giraffe's head to pop over the railing.  Of all the giraffes the Zoo has, apparently this guy is the only one who'll take lettuce from visitors.  We were lucky enough that he was still hungry when we stopped by.  $5 for a handful of lettuce might seem steep but really, how often do you have an opportunity to feed a giraffe?  Never mind just being able to stand at eye level?

Well hello there!

You see Megan is pulling her hand back while James feeds the giraffe but she actually fed him a piece of lettuce herself.  She was so excited and proud.  Unfortunately they had to chase him down for her to give him that last piece of lettuce so I didn't get a great shot.  Poor Em was hanging out with me while I was taking pics.  She just gets screwed, doesn't she?

Don't worry about poor Emmy.  She had her turn to feed an animal.  Our next stop was the Children's Zoo.  It's general knowledge around these parts that the Ft. Worth Zoo is better than the Dallas Zoo.  With the addition of the "Giants" exhibit, I'm not so sure anymore.  We enjoyed our trip to the FW Zoo last year, and they do have a train which is an automatic WIN in our book however, the children's area at the Dallas Zoo totally rocks and it is what will keep us going back there for years to come.  The girls got to feed the goats.  Luckily Mommy loads her purse with quarters so they can ride the little rides at the outlet mall so I had plenty of quarters to buy goat food.  They LOVED it.  We finally had to leave so some other kids could see the goats. 

I have no idea why this next one was such a big attraction for my girls.  Apparently watching large colorful fish swim around in a giant tank of water is fun!  Who knew?  I couldn't get Megan away from this one.  You know, we just watched Finding Nemo a couple weeks ago.  Maybe she has a new love for fish now?  At least we found a shady spot.  It was a really nice day, especially in the shade.

While Megan sat and stared at the fish with James, Em and I popped over to see the ducks.  They were all sleeping, silly ducks, so we played on the wooden horses for a while.  Who needs a real pony ride?  They actually have pony rides but Megan didn't want to go (and we didn't want to wait in line for a ticket) so we just skipped it.  Neither of them was very interested when we passed by the real pony but these little wooden guys were a real hit. 

Next stop, once we finally dragged a kicking and screaming Megan away from the fish tank, was the water!!  Last time we came I didn't know they had water.  This time, I came prepared with a towel and extra clothes.  They played in the little (highly chlorinated) "creek" for quite a while.  The water was cold and it felt so good (yep! I even took my shoes off and joined in).  It was a blast!  Just another fun thing I had to drag a screaming Megan away from.  I wonder why nobody thought I was kidnapping a child?  After the water we stopped for some lunch for the girls.  It was already 1:00!!  LONG DAY!

Full bellies and a change of clothes, we stopped to ride the carousel on our way out.  We bought the tix on the way in so we wouldn't have to wait in line later.  Smart thinking!  Wish I could claim that as my idea but I have to give all the credit for that one to James.  Poor Em looks like she was in a bar fight but she's still all smiles but nobody loves a good carousel ride more than her big sister.  Megan gets mad now when I try to hold onto her while she's riding.  I guess she'll be big enough to ride alone before I know it.   

I'm uploading the rest of the zoo pics to the Shutterfly site - linky to the right.