Hogle Zoo...

On Saturday we went to the Hogle Zoo with my sister Jamie(and family) and brother Justin(who with map in hand was our personal tour guide.) The last time I went to the zoo was 14 years ago on a date before I had even met Steve. Steve has been wanting to take Maddy for a while now so we finally just planned a day. I wasn't very smart and told Maddy as soon as we had the date planned(two weeks in advance) and he was so excited and bugged me about it for a week straight. We had a really fun time and I even ran into an old friend(and his family) from high school. It was pretty funny because he actually recognized Steve from seeing him on my blog before he even realized it was me. Of course Maddy LOVED seeing all the different animals and especially loved the elephants, giraffes(which as you can see above there is a baby that is only a year old), alligators, bear and zebra. He asked me if he could ride the elephant, zebra and giraffes. Too cute! Here are more of the animals that we saw...

The black bear had a serious itch and was roaming around itching himself on different rocks and branches. In the picture above it was itching his back end. Pretty funny! I think it is so cute how the monkeys in the bottom right picture have their tails intertwined.

My favorite picture of the day! Avery is such a Daddy's girl!

My favorite picture of Maddy! I love how you can see the smile on his face in the reflection. You can't tell but he was looking at a monkey.

Avery was happy as usual.

In the left picture Maddy is holding a card about alligators. He insisted on carrying it around almost the whole day. In the middle picture Steve and Maddy were watching the bird show.

If there is water they will find it and play in it! If there is dirt they will find it and play in it! What you can't see is in the middle picture Maddy was sprinkling dirt into his cousin Claire's hair who was standing below. So mischievous! We planned ahead and packed a lunch and we were so glad. We were so hungry! We had sub sandwiches, chips, grapes, cheese, carrots and of course water.

Maddy holding his ticket for the train ride which he was so excited for.

All of us on the train ride(you can't really see my brother he is hiding behind Steve)-love Steve's cheesy smile in the middle one.

Both the kids were exhausted and fell asleep on the way home. Avery's car seat is still rear facing so I couldn't get a picture of her.

I think this is a really cute picture! Before we left we let Maddy pick out one toy from the souvenir shop. He chose a collection of zoo animals and they are his new favorite toys. The big penguin on the side was Avery's choice(after grabbing it and eating the tag she pretty much bought it.) :)