(Warning: tons of photos ahead.)
Yesterday was gray and rainy, but it was also the first day we’ve had in ages where the high was in the low 70s. After how soul-crushingly hot this summer has been, that meant that we were going to get outside and enjoy the cool weather if it killed me.
With that in mind, we (meaning me, the girls, and my parents) loaded up into my mom’s mini-van and drove to Asheboro to visit the North Carolina Zoo. We’ve been to the zoo a couple of times before, although the last time I went, I was very newly pregnant with Lucy and wasn’t able to enjoy myself very much because I was kind of sick and miserable the whole time.
The main reason for the zoo trip this time is because Catie heard about the dinosaur exhibit there, and since she says she’s going to be a paleontologist when she grows up, she was DYING to see the dinosaurs. In fact, from the minute we got there, she kept asking, “Can we see the dinosaurs next? Where are the dinosaurs? Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, DIIIIINOOOOOSAAAAAUUUURS!!!!”
(It got old, is what I’m saying.)
Then we finally found the dino exhibit, and oh y’all, my girl was in heaven.
There’s one dinosaur near the entrance that you can climb on for pictures, but the rest of them are off-limits. These are really amazing life-size dinosaurs that move and roar and everything.
I tried to get Lucy in one picture, but girlfriend was NOT having it.
Once we got into the exhibit, I basically only saw Catie’s back for the next 20 minutes. She would run ahead to the next dinosaur and then stand there and stare at it, absolutely transfixed.
(I basically have a lot of pictures of the back of her blue Tinkerbell hoodie.)
It kills me how much she knows about dinosaurs, and it’s all stuff that she’s learned on her own, because I certainly haven’t taught her this stuff. As we walked up to this one…
My mom said, “Hey, Catie, is that an allosaurus?”
Catie replied, “No, Mimi, it’s an APATOSAURUS.”
And she was right. If you’d asked me what it was, I would have shrugged because I have no clue.
Anyway, the dinosaur exhibit was a major win.
The rest of the zoo was a lot of fun too. Lucy insisted on walking a lot of the time, which meant going really slowly. The zoo is divided into two major exhibits, the Africa side and the North America side. We only covered the Africa side, and left North America for another time. After all, Africa has all of the really cool animals that we wanted to see.
(Note the tiny baby giraffe sitting down. He was just born at the zoo recently. I love him.)
Gorgeous. Think they’d let me take her home? I’ll bet Beaumont would like a friend.
This was Lucy’s first time at a zoo, and I was interested to see what her reaction was. She was mildly interested in things like the elephants.
But it was the chimpanzees and the gorillas that really got her attention. I think maybe because the exhibits let you see them so close, but I got this picture after Lucy saw a gorilla up close for the first time, and I think it might be one of my favorite pictures of her.
She was just STUNNED. It was hilarious. After a minute, she got excited and spent the next few minutes saying, “ooh ooh ahh ahh” at them. As we left, she blew them kisses and yelled, “Bye-bye!!”
So, I think she’s a fan of the zoo.
She got tired toward the end, and she only wants my dad when she’s grumpy, which led to this picture, which I love.
It was a really great day, even in spite of the drizzly rain, and both kids were so worn out that they went to bed early and slept soundly all night, so who knows? We might go to the zoo every Sunday from now on. (Not really. But it’s a nice thought.)
