Louisville Zoo Fieldtrip - July 2013

We took a fieldtrip to the Louisville Zoo courtesy of Grammy and Grand-Dad in July. It was a gorgeous day and we all had a fabulous time!

 Miss McKinley is Grand-Dad's girl!

 Missy K and Jackson waved to the elephant...

 and the elephant waved back! :)

 While we were waiting to feed the giraffes we snapped a couple of super cute pictures of Grand-Dad and his girls

  and Grammy with her boy :)

 Some cute kiddo pictures. :)

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Jackson (almost 3 years old)

 McKinley (5 months old)

 Kennedy (4 1/2 years old) and Reagan (6 years old)

 Feeding the giraffes is always a highlight of visiting the Louisville Zoo. This time we were able to feed the baby. :)

 We had lunch by the splash zone and played a while there too.

 Jackson had such a fabulous time running around and didn't appear to realize there was another child there. Grand-Dad caught some fabulous and pretty funny pictures of him charging through the lines as if he was the only person in sight. 

 Jackson also enjoyed the waterslides. The girls had a great time too they just weren't nearly as funny, excited or as entertaining about this opportunity as Mr. Jackson. 

 We took a break on the playground after visiting some more animals. I thought this picture of Missy K checking whether Grand-Dad was actually asleep or not was pretty cute.

 Missy K decided taking a nap was a good idea

 or maybe just a funny one :)

 Grand-Dad decided Missy K had the right idea lying down and the ground looked more comfortable. Both of these guys were cracking me up with their nap antics on the playground. lol :)

 Grammy indulged our love of the Carousel and Grand-Dad caught some pretty cute picture of Kennedy

 Blowing kisses :)

 Since our visit to the St. Louis Zoo in April, the Gorilla has been one of Reagan's favorite animals. She couldn't wait to see the gorilla exhibit and show. Here she is checking out how she compares to an adult sized gorilla.

 Grand-Dad took this awesome picture

 Grand-Dad also took this picture of my munchkins at the tiger exhibit

Thank you Grammy and Grand-Dad for taking us to the zoo. What a great fieldtrip!

Cincinnati Zoo Fieldtrip

Aunt Dorothy invited us to spend a day at the Cincinnati Zoo with them the beginning of April. It was the first time we had visited the Cincinnati Zoo and we had a fabulous time! Here's our fearless crew during a lunch/snack break.

 The tulips were absolutely incredible. There were so many colors and they were so spectacular. The girls enjoyed checking them out while we were waiting for our tickets to get into the zoo.

 Reagan decided our first stop should be the elephants

 Then we headed over to the giraffes where we were just in time to feed them. Jackson was so excited about how close they were coming while we were waiting. He was ready to go when it was his turn with just a little assistance from Reagan.

 On our way to the rhinos (which we never actually got to see)  we were stopped by some zoo volunteers who asked if the girls would like to use these telescopes to see different animals. I think Reagan eventually got the hang of it but Kennedy mostly just smushed her face, eyes closed no less, against the lense. It was a good effort though!

 We spotted a very active polar bear so we made a detour to see it and caught up with Uncle Dan, Aunt Dorothy, Heidi and Holden there.

 We continued on with them to see the lion demonstration. This was very interesting as we were able to learn a little bit about lions while getting to watch them being fed. Heidi posed so nicely for me by the lions.

Jackson appears to share Kennedy's fascination with snakes

Jackson also loved this baby alligator (or crocodile?) and insisted on petting it. While I couldn't snap a picture of him petting it (I was holding him and somehow I'm just not quite that talented) I was able to get pictures of Heidi and Holden petting this little reptile.

All the kids couldn't wait to take the train around the zoo. This was one highly anticipated activity!!!

Sweetest picture of the day, no doubt!

Jackson LOVED the petting zoo with all the goats and sheep. He could not get enough of petting them and letting them lick him. I have included some of my favorites here but I have dozens more! :)

The girls enjoyed the petting zoo with Jackson but Holden was off to the playground with Uncle Dan where we joined him before too long.

Slide!!!

Definitely the cutest little turtle in the zoo!

One wiped out little girl! :)

Thank you so much for inviting us along for this super fun day Aunt Dorothy! We definitely need to go back!

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As a side note, by purchasing the tickets through the BHLC I only had to pay $10 for our 4 tickets. What a deal!!!

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Additionally, not long before our zoo field trip our homeschooling friends, the Little Professors, visited the National Zoo. They were able to print and take some really neat learning games with them to the zoo. I looked at the Cincinnati Zoo webpage to see if they had the same sort of activities but couldn't find anything. Next time I'll be more on my toes and create my own activity cards to take along for more zoo fun and learning! In the meantime, you can check out ideas for your own zoo trip and what the Little Professors worked on during their zoo visit at http://thelittleprofessors.blogspot.com/2012/03/field-trip-national-zoo.html .