Fort Worth Zoo

I hate crowds. I get claustrophobic in large groups and avoid going places when I know there are going to be a lot of people. So when Cory suggested going to the zoo on Thursday (his only day off during our spring break) I immediately started thinking of how to get out of it. Spring Break is one of the busiest weeks of the year for the zoo and I knew that taking three kids would be a disaster waiting to happen. I also knew that I really wanted to have a family outing with Cory and the kids so I compromised with him and we decided to go on Sunday morning. We arrived as soon as the zoo opened and left when it started getting really crowded. My wonderful sister, who lives across the street from the zoo, offered to watch Lily for a few hours so we could spend some quality time with Parker and Eden. The crowds were not too bad when we first arrived at the zoo. Parker's attention span was so short that we quickly made it through the flamingo, monkey and elephant exhibits. He definitely kept us moving quickly! We slowed down a little bit to watch the elephants and hippos and then stopped to feed a few fish and turtles in the pond. Next up were the lions, tigers, and bears- oh my! Parker told me before we left the house that morning that we would not be seeing any bears at the zoo because they live in caves. He was quite impressed that we did, in fact, see a bear at the zoo!

As always, the kids favorite part of the day was feeding the birds. Cory made a new friend while we were in the bird area. One bird would not leave him alone. It first landed on his shoulder and then on his arm! Eden loved feeding the birds and it was the only time she did not want me to hold her the entire day. (Yes, my back was killing me from carrying her for three hours. In her defense, she was not feeling well and had to go to the doctor with croup on Monday-poor baby!)

After feeding the birds, we stopped for a little snack before letting the kids take their first ride on the carousel. I was so excited about watching the kids go up and down on their horses but my excitement bubble was soon burst by my nonadventurous kids who chose to sit on the boring bench instead. Maybe next time they will choose to ride on a horse like every other kid on the carousel. Maybe.
Don't be fooled! Eden was clinging to me for dear life and cried until I took her off of the horse!
After the carousel, we realized that the crowds were getting a lot bigger and our kids were getting a lot more whiny and tired, so we called it a day and headed home. We were all hungry so we picked up Lily and decided to go to Central Market to eat lunch. The best thing about Central Market (after the yummy food, of course) is that they have a playground next to the eating area. Even as tired as they were, Parker and Eden could not wait to finish their lunch so they could go play. They also loved the ice cream that Aunt MerMer treated them to. Parker wanted orange ice cream but the only orange ice cream they had was cantaloupe. He settled on bubble gum instead. It was the sweetest, most disgusting ice cream I have ever tasted, but he finished every single bite of it.

Granna, Granstan, and Grandma were all out of town so we invited Papa to join us for our zoo adventure. We were so glad he was able to go and spend the day with us. Overall, we had a great day and made a lot of fun memories! I can't wait until Lily is big enough to go with us next year!