My personal favorite parts of the zoo were the aquarium (ok so mainly the shark tunnel where sharks swim above, and beside you as you walk through a tunnel, totally loved it)! My other favorite part of the zoo was visiting the Lied Jungle. I seriously could have lived there. It felt like we were walking through the Amazon jungle. There were waterfalls, and rope bridges that were so awesome. Loved seeing the animals, and it was just a really awesome part of the zoo. My final favorite destination of the zoo? The part that really brought my geek out? The DINOSAUR exhibit. It is as close to Jurassic Park as we're ever going to get (in my life time at least)! The dino's were life size, and animatronic. They really looked like they were breathing and turned their heads and tails and opened their mouths and roared and all that good stuff. I knew they were fake...but I still wanted to run up and hug one and put it....especially the big ol' Looong neck (to quote one of my favorite Land Before Time Movies).
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| My niece Faith had a great time stretching her legs at one of the many rest stops on our trip. |
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| My daughter Kams having fun at one of our many rest stop on our trip. |
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| My daughter LOVES Giraffes and has since she was a baby. She saw this big wooden guy at the gift shop at the zoo and was begging for us to buy this LIFE SIZE giraffe. Yeh. Don't think so kid. |
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| First day at the zoo! Ready to explore! |
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| A really cool globe that sat on a water fountain and the kids had fun rolling it around. |
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| My sons posing in the desert dome |
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| Marshall hanging out with some Gorilla statues |
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| Keegan hanging out with the Gorillas while his brother and sister are up to some silly shenanigans in the background. |
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| The kids enjoying the Gorilla house |
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| My sons LOVED the learning center and playing with the whale screens so they can hear all the different sounds the whales make. |
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| My daughter found another, smaller giraffe and was still begging to bring it home. |
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| My son Marshall loved the dino cut outs |
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| The rope bridge in the jungle area, it was awesome. The kids loved it. |
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| Last day of the zoo! (My husband took the photo) |
The first dino scared the heck out of the kids. My sons jumped and screamed running for their lives when that dino instantly turned looked at them and roared in their faces (only 2 feet away from them) of COURSE it was a meat eater! They BOLTED screaming their lungs off. They had everyone in the exhibit laughing their heads off. My daughter ran behind me...and shoved ME towards the dino apparently as some sort of peace offering, "Here you eat my Mom, she's bigger it'll take you longer and I can get away!" Thanks dear daughter! Remind me to NOT let her in our zombie apocalypse clan! I know what she'll do, trip me so she can get away. Nice daughter I'm raising there huh?
Scored some fun photos during our family vacation, I know I took over 2000 photos so it may take me some SERIOUS amounts of time to ever show any of the really cool ones, but I'll share them as I get them finished. I only have a few finished at the moment.
It wasn't too bad taking my 1 year old niece and my 5 year old daughter and 4 year old twins. They were pretty good during the trip only a few melt downs, and they were nothing out of the ordinary.
We've had a lot of fun times this summer. Going to the drive in theater several times, playing outside in the back yard, fun at the lake, a family vacation to one of the most awesome zoos in the Midwest, and traveling to another state to visit family we haven't seen in awhile. Also, my niece celebrated her first birthday this month!
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| The kids have had a lot of fun hanging out at our local library this summer. |
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| Library fun |
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| Marshall loved hanging out at the drive in movies |
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| Kamilah enjoyed the drive in movies as well |
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| A very rare moment with my boys! Them hugging and NOT trying to kill each other. Usually they are NOT wanting to be close to each other. |
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| Still getting along! |
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| Marshall hanging out with his Grandma at the drive in. |
Now we're gearing up for back to school! My daughter starts kindergarten and the boys are off to preschool again. Looking forward to the first day of kindergarten photos! I will be crying my eyes out, I thought I cried when Kams and the boys went off to preschool for the first time. Kindergarten is REALLY going to get me!
This summer seems to have flown by. Lots of great memories to remember this summer by.
I hope your summer has been wonderful as well!
Mae
