Family Fun Day at the Zoo

Every year the Dallas Zoo does $5 admission for the month of January and February.  The marketing tag line is something like "Cool weather. Hot prices."  Luckily for us, the weather isn't too bad during this time.  This is our second year in a row taking advantage of these prices.  Michael and I were both super excited to take our animal loving girl to check out all the zoo had to offer and to see it and experience it through her eyes.

In order to accommodate her nap schedule and  my afternoon work schedule, we made sure to arrive right as the doors were opening at 9 AM.  This was great, because there were hardly any people and the weather was still a little cooler (high 40's/low 50's).  That's always the best time to get animal participation!  (It was 70 degrees by the time we left a little after noon... which is why Michael is in shorts.)

Olivia checking out the penguins.

How tall are you?

She enjoyed the statues just as much as the real thing. :)

How cool is that?  We were watching for a minute or two and he turned and looked right at Olivia.

She said, "Oh boy! Big gorilla!" :)

Looking for lemurs

We made sure to attend the predator encounter.  They basically do some of their training with the lions right in front of the viewing area at a certain time.  They don't make the lions come, but they do use treats for rewards so the lions usually cooperate.  They practice skills they need them to do in order to draw blood (from their tail) and give them vaccines, etc.

After it was over, we walked around and saw a few other animals.  As we were passing by the lions later, one of them started roaring.  It roared a lot. This doesn't happen every time you go to the zoo, and it's one of Michael's favorite things, so he was pretty pleased.

One of the things that I do love about the Dallas Zoo is that you can feed the giraffes.  Of course, they way over charge you for some lettuce, but it is cool nonetheless.  Olivia loved it!

 "Bebras!!"... and more giraffes.

We saw the elephants multiple times.  They are on of Olivia's favorite.

After seeing all of her favorites (and more), we headed to the Children's section.

We went into the barn and saw a few horses, some fat bunnies, an owl and some pigs.

This is when Olivia turned around after hearing the pig oink.  It went something like, "jigga jigga big pig oink jigga jigga". :)

More shock over the real live oinking pig. 

"Fish! Glub, glub. Fish! Glub, glub."

Feeding and then petting the goats

Trying to feed the birds.  They weren't too interested in us.

Our last stop was the carousel.

Twins, anyone?

It started moving and she got excited.

She was saying, "Elephant... up down...jigga jigga (seriously.  this is what her "filler" words sound like)... a horsey... Oh, Boppa! Oh, Mama...Elephant, up down up down...jigga jigga..." 

It was a great day!