Saturday, February 4, 2012

"Zoo Time"

Michael's parents gave Bryson a Dallas Zoo membership for Christmas and we have been itching to go. We finally got a chance to go today and had SO SO much fun! We told Bryson last night that we were going to the zoo in the morning and he couldn't wait until "zoo time!"

He woke up quite early and after I reminded him on the plans, he recited a huge list of animals over and over with "yay zoo time soon" thrown in there every once in a while.

We packed up and headed out and got there a couple minutes before it actually opened.
Before I tell you about our day, I have to warn you that there were three (uuugh. THREE?)  "Mommy Fail" periods of our day. The first --I realized I left my camera sitting on the counter. Uuugh. Anyway, back to our day...

It was amazing. We were literally there all by ourselves along with the workers! We saw a few families here and there, but it felt like a private day at the zoo for several hours. All the animals were fresh and active, the zoo keepers were ready to spout out information about the adorable animals and best of all, we didn't have to worry about keeping Bryson belted down in his stroller...he ran around with us as he pleased (which I think might have been one of his favorite parts :))
(I didn't take anypictures of just animals because, well, I know you've been to the zoo and you know what's there, right? right. Ha!)


He HAD to have his hands in his pockets, just like Daddy!!
Not sure if you've picked up on this, but Bryson is an active kid. Never stops. He had already run around the zoo for well over an hour at this point and had no interest what-so-ever to sit in his stroller. To coax him in his stoller, I gave him some gummie snacks, and as I was strapping him in, I set my coffee thermos in his snack tray across the front. The stroller jolted a little throwing my thermos of coffee (less than luke-warm, mind you--I made it about 3 hours prior) all over Bryson's shirt. Insert "Mommy Fail" number 2. AND, I didn't have an extra set of clothes. I couldn't possibly let him keep a wet, now cold from the wind, shirt on for the rest of our trip so Michael turned into our Superhero again. I stuffed a blanket up between Bryson's tummy and his wet coffee-soaked shirt and Michael ran like the wind down to the front enterance of the zoo to the souvenir shop to buy an over priced cheesy monkey sweatshirt for him. Good thing he's a runner because we just happened to be at THE furthest spot from the enterance in the entire zoo. What luck. Thank you, my superhero husband, for saving the day!!!
Ok, back to the fun!!

He loved pacing around with this crazy lizard. After pacing the length of the window about 15 times, he got down and crawled with it :)


Eww, snakes!

Bryson loved LOVED petting this snake. It really surprised me. We asked him if he wanted to, but definitely weren't pushing him one way of the other, but he ran straight to it. Then, he kept leaving the exhibits we were at to go back and see and pet the snake again. Definitely not my son at that moment!! I think he and Michael pet the snake several times!!


We had sooo much fun at the zoo with our little family! Bryson was totally worn out and passed out in the car on the way home. I was a little worried, but much to my surprise, he even stayed asleep as I unbuckled him from the car, carried him inside, layed him in his bed, and left the room. Which never happens!! We talked about how we figured how he would sleep for well over his normal nap, like 3 or 4 hours since he was just so darn tired from runnning around the Zoo all day!!

We sat down and relaxed for about 15 minutess until we got a text from Michael's Mom saying, "where are you? Are you coming??"

Insert Mommy Fail Number 3....

(I have to load the pictures from my camera and then I'll continue ;) )

6 comments:

  1. Okay, Bryson is just the cutest! I think he and Jude would get along so well!

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  2. We had a very similar experience recently at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, complete with Ava ditching her stroller and running what was likely several miles by foot through the entire place. Snacks, drinks, toys - nothing would get her back in, and when we tried, she screamed like we were kidnapping her (not her normal personality). Ay ay ay!

    Looks like a great trip! I wish ours had penguins!

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  3. What a fun day at the zoo. I think you need to get a planner. You forgot about Michaels marathon and now it looks like you forgot something else!! Ha!!

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  4. Love it! Hurry up and finish the story! I want to know what happened :)

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  5. Ha ha - what fun!! I love the pic of him standing like Daddy. :-)

    I don't even keep track of my Mommy fails anymore. Too many to count...

    :-)

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  6. What a fun day at the zoo! I love the lion jammies and of course all of life's little adventures. :) Fun pictures of the fam with the animals. Love it!

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