Let's Zoo It!

Since June 30th, we have been to the zoo 3 times.  3 times!  This is why I don't feel guilty about going back to work in August.  They have enjoyed an action packed summer in the last few weeks.  Andy and I took Jackman and Goose to the Knoxville Zoo right before we left for our Jackson excursion and all they cared about was the awesome splash pad.

I love our zoo so much, especially since it is always improving.  They recently added this little train ride (where the butterfly house used to be) and jack was totally digging it.

Obviously.

We also got to pet some bugs.  ew.  Cockroaches are my archenemy so I was not having it.  But Jack was all over it and has been talking about it since we left.  (boys...)

When we visited Jackson, my dad expressed interest in taking Jack and Lucy to the Memphis Zoo.  I was all over it.  I hate to diss the Knoxville Zoo but holy cow.  This place was awesome!

They have grizzly bears!

And wolves! (This is Jack howling at them.)

And Burmese pythons! (please tell me my Harry Potter people can see why I had to get a pic of my mom and me at this exhibit.  If only I spoke Parseltongue...of course I wouldn't want to b/c I'd be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin but let's not split hairs here.)

Jack loved the snakes so much we took a stuffed one home.

Most of the family with the red panda (All i could think was..pbbbsstt.. Knoxville has 5 of these. Been there!)

We gave into our last bout of face painting and did the dragon.  I'm not kidding.  I am learning how to face paint and it will save us a fortune.  But at least the boy got a kick out of roaring at everyone :)

The biggest perk of the Memphis Zoo was getting to see my friend Jenny and her family!  Her little girl Maddie is 7 months old, absolutely adorable, and felt light as a feather compared to my heavy weights.  She was precious and so were the parents.  It's such a marvel watching Jenny as a mom b/c I keep thinking about driving around in her Toyota Camry while we were in high school, drinking Sonic slushies and looking for fun things to do. Now we are moms and will never need to look for stuff to do again.  Our lives are action packed from this moment on.  It's so cool to come full circle :)

Goose and the snakes.  And to think I worried about having a girl when I already had a boy.  The Goose is an older brother's dream,
 

I love this picture.  Running into her daddy's arms, all the while yelling, "Annie!"  She is crazy about him.

I have no clue what animal is in this picture with Jack but I love that he's wearing a Kersey Farms hat :)

Panda bears!

The lovely Stinchfield family :)

I got to do the carousel with my little ones.  This was Lucy's first time!

Gaga, Baba, Jackman, and a sleepy Goose :)

Proof we were there together! I love my hottie husband :)

Selfies with the Goose after the zoo :)  She is the cutest girl ever.  Sorry world - contest is over.

It's a little unnerving how good she is at this.

To round out our zoo extravaganza, we went back to the Knoxville Zoo to close out the summer!  Rachel joined us because she's awesome and we love her.  We also got to feed giraffes, learn about baboon bottoms, and go crazy in the Kid Zone.  i also got trapped in the kid zone slide and vowed never to go in again.  Needless to say, the zoo is one of our favorite places ever and we are so happy to live within 15 miles of it!

Rachel was kind enough to get footage of me going down the slide with Lucy.  Please ignore the stank eye I'm giving the kid behind me...