Mommy's Big Day!

My birthday fell on Mother's Day this year, so we decided to celebrate the occasion at the NC Zoo! A cloudy morning delayed our leaving, but it was beautiful sunshine the whole time we were there. Whitley remembered it from previous trips, and said as we were entering, "Yea! We'll see lions, and monkeys, and Merry-Go-Round!!!" I'd kind of forgotten they had a carousel there, but my little girl definitely did not. (She ended up riding it twice.) One thing I like about visiting the zoo, is that different animals always surprise you. You might get to see giraffes at play on one trip, and the next time they'll be hiding, but the gorilla will be right by the glass... This particular visit, I liked watching the lemurs get their snacks from some handlers. They were so cute leaping all over the place, like little tiny cat people. Weird. We also strolled through the aviary- an exhibit we usually skip- and got the biggest kick out of a parrot who told us, "Hello!" a couple of times. I was very impressed with Whitley's parrot voice- she mimicked the sound as well as Tom and me. But Whitley most loved the ostrich of all things! It was one of the first creatures we saw, and she talked about it the whole trip. She even selected it as her ride on the carousel. (That definitely amused me. I told her, "Good pick, Whitley. I don't think we'll be beating off kids for that one!") The NC Zoo is a large park, with over five miles of walking paths, so we were pretty beat. On the ride home, both Whitley and I fell asleep in the car. It was a great day!

Whitley gets down to check out a desert tortoise!

My baby and I.

Tom and I are often amused by what a little scaredy-cat Whitley is. And yet, she walked right up to this lady holding a python. She didn't seem interested in touching it, but she liked looking at it. (Don't worry, Mom; I would never let her go near one in the yard.)

We took a little ride back to the center of the zoo to avoid some of the walking. Whitley liked the zebra bus a lot!

Second time on the ostrich. Soooo happy!!

They have a little Dora ride at the zoo. We skipped it, but Whitley was still pretty pumped just to stand by this giant picture of her favorite cartoon.

Whitley and Tom had a few laughs running through the mister.

If I'd realized how much bigger we were than this sculpture, I might have opted not to sit on it myself. Poor baby elephant! :)