Saturday, September 29, 2012

Sara Kate Visits the Zoo!

*Warning, picture overload in this post!  But they're all good pictures, just so ya know.  :-)

Today was a first for Sara Kate...she visited the zoo for the first time!!  I wanted to take her this spring but it never worked out.  I think it's good we didn't get to go because I don't think she would have appreciated it as much then as she did now.  She LOVES animals.  She will play animals (Little People) or stuffed animals (including Elmo) over baby dolls.  Animals, puzzles, and books.  That's her thing.  Anytime we go somewhere she has to take an animal.  She has animals in the bath tub.  You get my point.  We decided to make it a family affair and ask Chris' sister and her family to go with us.  The only thing that could make visiting a place full of animals better for Sara Kate would be to visit a place full of animals with Hannah!  She was ecstatic when I told her she would spend the whole day with her favorite cousin (maybe her favorite person ever, ha!).  We put Hannah in our car on the way to Tulsa and the girls already were having so much fun.  We got to the zoo around 11, which worked out well for Hayden's nap schedule.  
These 2 were inseparable all day.  I love seeing Sara Kate have such love and admiration for her cousin! 
 
First up was the elephants.  The Tulsa Zoo has one of the oldest elephants in North America.  She was 62 years old!
Jason was telling Hayden all about them.
We went by the bamboo jungle (I love this picture!)...
On the way to see the monkeys!!
Hayden was kind of afraid of the monkeys at first because they got too close to him in the enclosed room but he was much better outside where he could get down with girls.
3 Little Monkeys!!
 
At one point it was just Sara Kate and Hayden standing there and she leaned over and put her hand on his shoulder to tell him about it.  We heard 'BUBBY, akfsdakfjsd (jibberish), MONKEYS, asdlfjadsljfaskdj (jibberish).'  It was precious.
After the monkeys, we saw the GIANT tortoises.  Seriously, they were huge, and they were right by the gate eating some lettuce and carrots.  One of them was estimated to be over 100 years old!
 
Next we saw the giraffes.  I love giraffes.  I love the way they look so elegant and graceful when they're so big.  Plus, what girl doesn't love a good giraffe print clothing item?!  I know I sure do!! :-)
This is an iPhone pic, but I loved seeing Sara Kate looking at the different animals, just taking it all in.
This is a terrible picture but it's funny.  Look closely, Chris said the giraffe photo bombed our picture, ha!!
We saw the zebras (once again, another good print on clothing, ha!) and Sara Kate kept talking about the zebras the rest of the day.  Before bed when we asked her what she saw, she said zebras.
Check out this very cool picture Chris got of the snow leopard!  He's saying, don't mess with me!
We saw 2 lions in the lions den.  I love big cats.
We planned ahead and brought snack lunch items.  There were picnic tables all over the place so we found a nice place and ate crackers, cheese, lunch meat, peanut butter, apples, and grapes. 
After lunch we went to the sea lion cave.  Another iPhone picture, but Chris couldn't get a good one since it was dark and they were moving so fast.  They are FAST!
We saw the penguins, and even saw the handler feeding them fish out of a bucket.
The flamingos were so graceful looking as well.  At this point, I was holding Hannah so she could see, Sara Kate was standing beside me asking for her apple juice, Chris was taking pictures, and Jason was holding Hayden.  I looked down and Sara Kate was gone.  I thought she went to Chris but she wasn't with him.  Freak out!  Jenny looked back and saw her running toward the stairs that went to the penguins and sea lions.  Jenny ran and grabbed her and gave her a stern talking to.  Thank you Jesus she didn't go far and Jenny saw her!!!!
And this was her look right after she got in trouble.  
Somewhere Chris saw this guy...yuck!!
There was a huge play ground area for the kids to play on.  It was perfect to let them run around since they had been staying close and holding hands all day.
Across from the play ground there was a rhinoceros.  Sara Kate had no interest in this guy.
Before we left we hit up the petting zoo area.  Sara Kate went around calling the sheep 'Ba Ba Black Sheep.'  What's so crazy to me is she loves animals so much, but she didn't want to touch!  This was as close as she got, and I think her hand was on the back of the sheep thanks to Hannah.  But she was done after that and she wanted to observe from my arms.
Hannah loved every second of it, though.
Since Chris was behind the camera all day, I snapped a picture of him and Sara Kate before we left. 
This is hilarious but Sara Kate hates big stuffed things, like mascots and this big giraffe.  Hannah wanted her picture with so I tested Sara Kate's limits with how close I could get.  HAHA!!!  She freaked.  I know, mean mommy.  And the giraffe was patriotic because they were having a voting registration right outside. 
We left about 2:30 and Hayden crashed on the way to the car, and the girls crashed as soon as the car started moving.
Everybody had a great time and behaved wonderfully (minus our one little disappearance), and I'm so glad we went with family.  It was a long day for us but a longer day for Jenny and crew since they drove from Berryville.  But Sara Kate loved every minute spent with Hannah.  I know Sara Kate had a blast, and I'm sure we will visit another zoo at some point down the road!

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