Another Trip to the Zoo

Last Thursday, Grace and I decided to visit the zoo with Lauren and Vivienne who are in our play group. Yes, believe it or not, we actually got a whole day in Knoxville WITHOUT rain!!! We had so much more fun at this visit than the last because we found a couple kiddy areas that we missed the first time. Note to self......when visiting the zoo with a one and a half year old, MAKE SURE FIND THE KID-FRIENDLY AREAS!!! HELLO!!

Grace got to ride a carousel for the first time, and, not surprisingly, LOVED it!!! It looks like she is going to love all that fun stuff like I do!! YES!! As a matter of fact, we could've stayed there all day since it wasn't a very pretty sight when it was time to get off! Ohhhhh I do love a good meltdown! :)

We also came across an outdoor petting zoo. I'm not quite sure what the goat was wanting Grace to do here or what Grace was about to do, but it turned out to be a rather hilarious picture! She went right up to the goats and sheep as if she is used to being around them on a daily basis. I guess if Pete has taught her something, it's that she is fearless when it comes to animals!

We also found an indoor area that had a million activities for kids to see and do. We saw rabbits (Hoppy as Grace calls them), turtles, rats, lizards, etc. There was also a play kitchen area filled with every kind of food you can imagine, dress-up clothes, a tunnel to crawl through (that I did with Grace and was actually pretty neat), an area with a zillion play tools (once Grace found a hammer, she carried it around until we left.....see picture to the left), and a few things we didn't even get to see! We couldn't leave without taking a look at the gift shop to see what we HAD to have. We ended up bringing some butterflies home and Grace kisses them every time we go into her room.

While I was trying to get Grace to eat some lunch, she tucked herself into a bunch of bushes and ended up hitting her head. The nice lady who worked at the gift shop came out and gave her a sucker which seemed to dry up the tears instantly and give her the right to completely refuse a chicken nugget even coming close to her mouth.......SWEET! By the time we got to our car, she was glued to the stroller and her hair was matted to her face! :) Oh well!

Our zoo offers "Boo at the Zoo" where the kids can dress up in their costumes and get in a little trick-or-treating action. I just might take her to see what goods we can get to start my Halloween candy stash!!!!