Our Jacksonville Zoo Visit!

Half our entourage at the main camp of the Jacksonville Zoo!

I thought that hopping on the stationary zebra would suffice.  Do you notice the looking of longing on Audriana's face?

I caved because all of her friends were getting on the carousel.

All weekend and week, I have been hyping up a trip to the zoo to see the giraffes, gorillas, elephants, lions and birdies.  I invited our friends to go and it was a great time had by all...until Mother Nature rained on our parade.  Literally.  We got to see the giraffes, lions and birdies.  But we had to do a quick ride-by of the gorilla exhibit and totally skipped the elephant exhibit due to the rain.  The Te/Anderson family can definitely handle a little sprinkling and light rain...but down-pour, we cannot.

The kids had such a great time and I found out that I can definitely do a zoo trip as a solo parent with both the kids.  I am absolutely astounded as how well behaved Audriana is on field trips such as these (and even to a boring tile store) when we have a serious conversation beforehand about what is agreeable behavior.  Audriana had no problems getting back into her stroller when asked and sets a shining example for Haakon.  Haakon was also well-behaved and really enjoyed the petting zoo exhibit.  However, he was not too delighted when he found out that he needed to get back into his stroller afterwards.  His new thing is to make himself as stiff as a board when I try to get him either in his car seat (a big indication that we need to get him an upgrade) or his stroller.  It is super fun and not embarrassing at all for me when this happens in front of other people [voice dripping with sarcasm].

Haakon patiently waiting for his sister to finish her ride.  It started to sprinkle during his wait.  What a sweet little brother!

Brushing the pygmy goats!  Audriana is VERY selective about which goat gets to be brushed by her...in her opinion, it's equivocal to winning the goat lottery for these animals!

Haakon is content checking out the goats' unnatural habitat.

Audriana is still making her selection by process of elimination.  Though, if truth be told, I think the goats are tired of her :)

We made a visit to the Lorakee exhibit.  This birdie immediately jumped on my shoulder--scaring the daylights out me for fear that he would poop on my shoulder.

The birdies got a little too close and this is Audriana trying to protect her brother....either that or she's trying to sacrifice him to the colorful birds to save herself!

The culmination of our trip: feeding the giraffes their morning snack!

It may look like she's going to feed him, but as soon as his tongue touch the lettuce leaf, she snapped the lettuce back!  Poor giraffe.

Lettuce has been snapped back.  Mommy had to take the lettuce away and give it to the giraffe and explain to Audriana why the giraffe is not like Scout and why it's not nice to tease with food.