The Zoo

We had a sudden few days of warm weather this week, so we decided to have a play date with Oliver's friends Annabelle and Nathan at the zoo this morning. Yes, it's still winter, and the snow hasn't totally melted yet, and we knew most of the animals would be tucked away somewhere, but it didn't matter. We were going to take the kids outside in the sunshine and let them run around!! Finally!

I didn't tell Oliver until about an hour before we were supposed to leave. He was so excited! He started yelling, "Yay the zoo! Yay the zoo!" over and over again and jumping around. Too cute.

I tried to get some good photos, but it was next to impossible to capture 3 two year olds except to get the backs of their heads, so I didn't get many photos at all.

 Oliver and Annabell watching the wolves through the glass.

 Nathan, Annabelle, and Oliver at the duck pond. You'd never know that Oliver is almost 2 weeks older than Nathan would you? Nathan is tall for his age, and Oliver is short for his.

Right after this a huge goose came up to the fence honking loudly, probably begging for food (they had food to buy for a quarter). Oliver freaked out, I'm not sure I've ever seen him so scared. He was also afraid of one of the wolves, the pigs, the cows, the bison, and the tiger. And that was pretty much the only animals that were out. I mean running in the other direction screaming his head off afraid, though the goose was the worst, I think because it was so close. This is a new development. We went to at least 5 zoos last summer and he loved them all and was never afraid. However, he was afraid of Marty's aunt's dog at Christmas. I hope this is just because of his age and not a sign that he takes after me. I was afraid of everything as a child, everything. But I work very hard not to encourage any fear in him, so I don't know. It's either genetic or a two year old thing. I'm hoping the latter!

 

Of course, we had to go to the Merry Go Round! Linsey and Annabelle look like they're about to be attacked by the white tiger!

Mr. Cheesy Grin's favorite part of the day, of course. He isn't afraid of these animals! He rode the panda bear and the elephant, the same ones he often chose at the zoo carousels we visited last summer. 

As we were leaving he asked/demanded, "Come back to zoo tomorrow." I'm pretty sure he meant just the carousel.