A trip to the zoo

On Friday the boys and I went to the zoo along with my cousin and her daughter and my friend and her son. I decided to try a different zoo that's closer to my parents house that my friend has been to several times. The Cameron Park Zoo was really pretty nice. Nobody can help the heat outside but this zoo was fairly shady which helped. There were also a couple of nice spots for the kids to play in like this area near the orangutans.



We got a great close view of two active elephants munching down on hay. Then one of them decided to cool off by splashing himself with water. He was pretty cool.

The meerkats showed off a little bit when we walked up to them. They just all scampered out of their little holes and one climbed up to the top and stood up really straight and made some funny noises. Cute!
We decided just to eat lunch in the zoo instead of trying to leave and come back. Luckily we ate a little early because the line got long even though the zoo didn't seem crowded at all.
Zachary really enjoyed pulling around his cousin Elizabeth and she loved to ride in the wagon so it worked out! Zachary kept saying he had such big muscles!
The otter tank was really neat because it had a clear tube slide that went through it. The four kids slide through the otters over and over.
The heat always makes the animals lay around. We didn't get a very good view of several of them because they were laying way on the opposite side of their habitats. We were lucky that the jaguar was laying pressed right up to the glass so the kids got to check him out up close.
There was another play area at the end of our loop around the zoo. There was a big treehouse with a slide and this huge snake that you could walk inside the mouth. Alex & Zachary were pretending they were Harry Potter fighting the basilisk.

These cute butterfly & lady bug cutouts were there too. Alex finally showed Elizabeth where to put her head but I'm not sure she enjoyed it. She looks more like she's in the guillotine the way she's hanging her head over. Hee hee!

We had no choice but to end the hot day with ice cream!
We had a good time at the zoo and a great time with our friends & family. I'm so glad we all got to go together!