A Perfect Day for the Zoo

Monday afternoon I was flipping through my e-mail as I walked down the hall and noticed a message from Ty's Aunt Brenda who lives in the area.  I saw the message was titled "Zoo with Ethan?" and I instantly got excited.  Her grandson, Ethan, came to visit for the week and she planned to take him to the zoo on Tuesday.  She invited us to go with them and I couldn't reply fast enough.  The forecast showed the perfect day for the zoo.  The high was projected to be around 80 degrees with sunny skies all day.

Tuesday morning we got up and ready, packed our lunch, and headed out the door in time to arrive at the zoo right when it opened.  As I was getting the stroller set up I looked behind me and saw Brenda and Ethan getting out of their car.  Once Carter was in the stroller Ethan asked if he could push it.  He was such a big helper and absolutely loved pushing the stroller, especially if he could run while pushing it.  Of course Carter loves it when you run with the stroller, in his mind the faster the better!  I'm used to going places with Carter by myself so it was really nice to have 2 other people with me, both of whom enjoyed pushing the stroller.  Brenda mentioned it reminded her of when Ethan was younger.  She would watch him a few days a week and took him on a walk in the stroller every day.

When we went inside the first area with animals I got Carter out of the stroller and he walked up to Ethan with his hand out, wanting to hold Ethan's hand.  Ethan was so sweet with him, took his hand, and talked to him as they walked.  He was so cute with how he talked to Carter and asked him if he wanted to do things.  He would even "translate" Carter's babble to us, saying Carter wanted to go the the next exhibit and that he said, "Next exhibit, please."  We laughed at Carter's surprisingly advanced vocabulary!  After Carter had been out and walking for a while Ethan requested Carter get back in the stroller so he could push him.  It was so sweet.

They have "Zoorasic Park" right now and Carter loved checking out the dinosaur.

 

Ethan was pointing out the bird to Carter.

 

One of Carter's favorites again this time was the grizzly bear.  It came right up against the glass, but I didn't get the camera out in time to take a picture before it wandered off to a different area of its enclosure.  We stopped by the petting zoo.  Carter and I always seem to get there when they are feeding the animals.  Carter likes to watch them but isn't too interested in touching them.  I'm not sure he'll even want to go in again next time.  He was standing close to a feeding area watching the goats when one got mad at another one and head butted it in the side, knocking it into Carter and causing him to fall to the ground.  I was taking a picture of Carter when it happened so I wasn't able to catch him but I did get a picture of the fall in action.  After that happened Ethan said we should probably leave before Carter got hurt again and then went up to a group of kids to let them know to "watch out for the llamas, they are fighting."  I laughed so hard when he relayed to me the information he'd shared with the group.

Carter getting slammed into.

Around 11:00 we stopped to eat lunch at the playground area and then the boys played for a while before heading to see more animals.  Carter looked like such a big boy sitting at the picnic bench all by himself with his feet swinging until I looked over and saw Ethan towering over him.  Then I didn't feel quite as emotional about how big Carter looked.  Ethan was finished eating first and took off to play.  We went over to meet him at the fire truck.  He was so sweet saying Carter could sit in his lap but I needed to stay close because when they got to the fire he'd need to get out of the truck to put the fire out.  Then he led Carter over to a train where they played for a while and Carter could have played forever.  Ethan found a toy that seated 2 and was so excited to get Carter and show him so they could ride it together.   

Enjoying his lunch.

You can kind of see his new giraffe socks he wore special for the zoo.

Ethan holding Carter while in the fire truck.

 

Sitting in the train.

 

Riding on the toys together.

Carter started looking sleepy and it was close to his naptime so we left the playground and headed back toward the zoo entrance a different way than we came in so we could see a few animals as we walked.  There was a boat by the sea lion exhibit and Ethan wanted to go check it out.  The boat had a wheel and there was a little boy sitting at it playing with it.  Carter walked up beside the boy and grabbed the wheel.  The boy started yelling at him and Ethan was quick to jump in and stand up for Carter.  He told the boy, "Hey, stop that, you don't talk to him like that!"  It was pretty adorable and I just let Ethan take care of the situation since the other little boy wasn't being very nice.  After we'd walked for a while Ethan wanted to ride in the stroller and asked for Carter to ride on his lap.  It was quite the load, but Brenda did a great job pushing them around.  Then Carter got tired enough he didn't want to walk or ride in the stroller, he wanted me to hold him, so I did.  The zoo is about 25 minutes from our house so my big chore on the drive home was to keep him from falling asleep.  I gave him my keys which worked for a few minutes before he threw them over the side.  I just kept singing to him and passing him new toys after he threw the previous one out of his car seat.  I was pleased that he was still awake when we arrived home and he went down for his nap pretty quickly.  He might have slept in the car and then gone back to sleep at home, but I didn't want to take a chance after our last zoo trip which ended in a no nap day!  We had such a blast and enjoyed the company so much.  I'm so glad Brenda thought to invite us!

Carter is a little taller than a Gentoo penguin and Ethan is a decent amount taller than an Emperor penguin.