The Tulsa Zoo was wonderful! The last time we went to a zoo was when Rhett was 18 months old and Braden was 3. We were in Louisiana visiting my family and we went to the Baton Rouge zoo. The boys loved it, but we were there in mid-July and it was H-O-T and most of the animals were out of view because of it. This trip to the zoo also took place mid-July. I'm not sure why, but that usually seems to be good timing for us to go places... Anyway, the kids all had such a great time. They've been looking forward to it for a while now and the trip did not disappoint!
We rented a little wagon/stroller for Gracie and it had 2 seats, so Rhett ended up riding in it most of the time. Gracie was so funny; everytime we got ready to "get on the move" to another exhibit, we'd tell her to get in and "go for a ride". She loved it and would get so excited and run over and climb in. Then if Rhett wasn't getting in with her, she would start yelling at him in her "jibberish/chinese/german/american/something-or-another" language and point feverishly to "his" seat. The only words we could actually make out were, "sit" and "bubba". He thought it was funny, and of course, loved getting all of that attention, so he would usually smile and sit down with her. So sweet!
Our first stop was the Elephants. That was what Rhett wanted to see most. The demonstration yard was being "refurbished" so it was closed, but you could still see them and walk through the educational exhibit. We even got to watch one of the Elephants getting her "bath" outside. Here's a pic of the kids and I in front of the giant mastadon statue, which Gracie wouldn't hardly take her eyes off of for a picture...
Next on the list was the Monkies....or the "unkeys" as Gracie would call them! For the few days preceeding the zoo trip, we were preparing Gracie for it. By the time we got to Tulsa, everytime we would say anything about going to the zoo, she would immediately burst into her best Monkey "oooh, oooh, ahhh, ahhh" impression. So cute! When we walked into the Monkey house, they weren't there... they were outside. We went outside to see them, but it was hot and sunny and most of them were hiding. We found out that they would be going back inside for their lunch in 25 minutes or so, so we went inside and got a front row seat right in front of the windows to wait for them. It was worth the wait. It was SO neat! The kids really liked them. There were 2 little babies and 1 of them ran right over to Gracie and got face to face with her. It freaked her out a little bit and she wanted to be held after that! Later in the day before we went home, we went back in to see the monkies again and we got to see a mamma monkey nurse her baby. And then my kids got a front row anatomy/biology/zoology lesson when the mamma turned the baby over (right in front of the viewing window, mind you) and "helped" it poop and then licked her fingers. (Sorry for the graphic nature of this blog, but I just had to give you the full story. It's so gross, but actually pretty funny when you think about it in the context of the looks on our faces when she did it and how we had to explain to the boys that we don't talk about this incident in public, etc. etc. etc. And Jas and I were laughing so hard we could hardly talk! :-)We've heard the story repeated several times since then. Only 1 time in public though. At KFC when we were eating lunch with Jason's parents and grandpa. Of all places! I was laughing so hard, I couldn't hardly get the words out to Rhett to "talk in your quiet voice" and "we don't talk about this at the dinner table", etc. Ahhh, memories in the making, right!!
Braden took all of the Monkey pictures!
The kids had a great time riding the Carousel and the Zoo train!
My little monkey boys!!
Next time we hope to go back when the weather is cooler so more of the animals will be out and about.Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we get to enjoy the zoo again!!
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