We had a very fun-filled weekend! Saturday morning, we woke up and took Maddox to the zoo. Aside from a somewhat disappointing sea lion show, Maddox had so much fun. And even though we have been to the zoo several times this summer, we did a lot of new things and saw a lot of new animals we hadn't seen before.
The first place we went when we arrived was the reptile exhibit. This was the first time we had been to see them. Maddox loved the little turtles. His daddy couldn't seem to get over the enormous rattlesnake they had. It really was huge!
We also checked out this cool turtle on the way to the reptiles. This was the first time we had seen him too!
We also saw this gator up close today! Usually when we've seen the alligators, they're very still and sometimes it's even hard to find them through that nasty water, but this one was swimming through the water right by us. Pretty creepy sight...
Next we went to visit the kangaroos. I wish they would have hopped around for us, but that still has yet to happen. This picture was in front of the kangaroo exhibit, although you can't actually see any of them in the background.
We then headed over to the sea lion show, which as I said earlier, was a total bust! We have watched them train the sea lions before and Maddox really liked it, so I thought the show would be pretty cool. Well, it wasn't and they really shouldn't even call it a show. For starters, they spent more time training some kid than they did the sea lions and I'm pretty sure the sea lions were much smarter than this extremely unenthusiastic kid volunteer. Maddox was ready to get up before the sea lions even started and when they finally did come out, the trainer had them jump up and touch a stick for about 2 minutes and then it was over. Needless to say, I didn't get any pictures of that.
After the sea lions we went to visit the monkeys. The Squirrel Monkeys were quite active hopping around all over the place. I managed to get one of them to stay somewhat still long enough to get in the background of this shot of Maddox (check out how sweaty he is) watching them.
We then went back to see the rhinos. Apparently it was "Rhino Day" at the zoo and they had all kinds of rhino activities planned for later in the day. We didn't stick around for those, but we did see a few of these enormous creatures. I tried to get a picture of Blake and Maddox with the rhino in the background, but they kept roaming around and wouldn't cooperate for me, so this was the best we could do...
After the rhinos we headed over to the predator zone to see the lions and tigers. Along the way we passed the big fish tanks. Maddox likes to climb on the step and watch the fish. We noticed this great big turtle creature in there that I had never noticed before and had a debate on whether or not he was real (because he really did look like a stone statue), but then he decided to settle it for us and start swimming around.
We arrived at the predator zone and saw the lions. I love when we go see the lions because Maddox always roars when he sees them. He has a funny little roar that is more of a whisper than anything. As usual the lions were sunbathing up on the rocks.
We also got up close and personal with a bobcat today. The bobcat was pacing the glass in his exhibit and Maddox just thought it was so funny every time he would walk by.
We were also sad to find out that our white siberian tiger friend, Moti, had passed away since our last visit. I hadn't realized this and saw where they were turning his exhibit into a beaver (predator?) exhibit, but I just figured that they had moved him somewhere else, but on our way out we saw a sign with his picture that said "In Loving Memory, Moti 1994-2010". I didn't realize he was that old. I guess that explains why he was always sleeping when we saw him. Here is the only picture I have of him. We will miss seeing him!
Another cool thing we got to do today was feed the giraffes. This was the first time we had done this and it was really neat (for me as well as Maddox). I think Maddox was pretty amazed by his long tongue!
After we had seen all of the animals, we decided to let Maddox run around at the splash pad for a few minutes. He doesn't really like getting sprayed with water, so he was a little skeptical, but he had fun.
The very last thing we did before we left the zoo was ride the carousel. This was the first time Maddox has ridden and he seemed to really like it. We got a few smiles out of him, but overall he was pretty serious the whole time. When we got off though, he ran back over to it squealing because he wanted to ride again, so I know he must have really liked it!
We headed home after the zoo, and needless to say, Maddox was asleep in no time at all. I'm pretty sure he was worn out. After a nice long nap, Aunt Erin was in town and came by to visit. She brought Maddox an Elmo stuffed animal and book that has the buttons you push to make noises. He really likes it! His new favorite character (besides Curious George of course) is Elmo and he sounds so cute when he says his name. Thanks, Aunt Erin! It was so great to see you!
Later that same evening (as if we hadn't already done enough that day) Uncle Scott called and asked if we wanted to take the little ones to Pump it Up. Naturally it sounded pretty fun so we said, sure why not? Well, we went and had SO much fun. To our pleasant surprise we were pretty much the only ones there and we didn't have to pay a dime because kids 2 and under are free and they don't charge the parents to play either. Wish we had found this little jewel earlier in the summer! The boys (and by boys I don't just mean the ones 2 and under) had so much fun! I am pretty sure they had just as much fun as the little ones. RaRa and Uncle Andrew came and met us up there and played too so Maddox and Jackson had lots of people to jump and play with. I tried to get a few pictures, but with all the movement and so forth my camera didn't seem to want to focus so I only got a few, but I am pretty sure you can tell from them that we ALL had way too much fun!
What a fun time!! I am pretty sure we will be going back again in the very near future! After we left Pump it Up, we all went to Chick-fil-a for dinner before we finally came home and put a very sleepy Maddox to bed. A very busy Saturday combined with more fun on Sunday that involved more playtime with Jackson made for a very worn out Maddox. And just to show how tired he was, I had to go get him up at 10:15 this morning. Now he is re-energized and ready for another fun-filled week before summer comes to an end!
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