To the Zoo!

During our office's Monday planning meeting it never fails that the boss asks each of us about what we did over the weekend...and that's where I get all our ideas about how to entertain Easton the following weekend.  These ideas are generally courtesy of JJ Futey or Sam Mink because their families definitely know how to make the most of a weekend (and why come up with my own ideas when I'm surrounded by these parenting pros)!!

So... enter the Futey/Mink suggestion...the Columbus Zoo!

The zoo is huge (as you can see above) and also has a water park and other rides attached to it.  If it weren't such a long drive we'd probably go every weekend!  On a side note, the zoo is up near Dublin, OH...another "I could live there" city.  That now makes my total "ICLT" cities probably close to 50...should make retirement interesting.

Moving on...moving on... OK so, like I said, the zoo is huge.  They had so many different animals that we left the little homie in his stroller for most of it so we could just cruise around and see what was there.

Jace pushed, I stalked

The first cool thing we encountered was the petting zoo.  There were probably 15 of the most docile goats on the planet all corralled into a small little area where anyone could just chill with them for as long as they'd like.  Easton thought the were doggies...sure, son, doggies...

After the doggy goats we headed up the hill to see the bears.  There were lots and lots of bears.  Brown ones...

And polar ones...

And the coolest part of the polar bear exhibit is the underwater viewing area.  Of course it worked out that we walked down there, saw a bunch of fish (that were going to become dinner later), got bored and walked back up...just as homeboy decided to plunge into the pool.  C'mon man... 

Easton, waiting with disappointment, for the polar bear to jump in --
OK I'm kidding, he was clueless, and loved watching the fishies!

We moseyed on back to the main area because we had passed an elephant on our way in but rookie parents couldn't figure out how to get close to the exhibit so decided we'd come back later.  You all know how that story's going to end don't you?  Of course the elephants were sleeping when we returned...why wouldn't they be?  We got to check out a rhino instead.

Just in case you needed the assist

Hey, Rhino, Mom & Dad let me out of the stroller. Show me somethin' cool!!

After saying 'sup to the rhino Jace and I did the "should we/shouldn't we" dance about whether to stay at the zoo or head home.  It was rapidly approaching lunch/nap time and oh how we treasure those few hours of downtime.  We opted for the parenting "gold star" and continued wheeling smallz through the zoo armed with some applesauce and some fruit snacks...there was still a few stops we wanted to make.

Next on the list were the lions...roarrrr... (insert a two-year-old's "roar")

Wait? What? Wake up Mr. Lion (said with a slight 'Y' sound for the 'L')

From the lion's den we rolled on over to the aquarium...by way of a very colorful surprise...

As pretty as they look these bia's were MEAN -- it must have been close to nap time for them, too

From the flamingo exhibit we headed on over to the aquariums -- the first one had a touch pool but Easton is still a little too young (and the line was long...so long, gold star) so we just walked him through and watched the fishies and sharks.  From there it was on to see the manatee exhibit.

There are manatees in the tank...somewhere...we didn't make it past this part of the tank though

 But mostly he just wanted to run around, climb and jump off things...so we let him :) 

It was a fabulous day and we are excited to know such a great destination is only about an hour away.  Next time we'll follow the sage advice given to us by Team Mink and pack a cooler with lunch and make a proper day of it.  There is SO much to do!!