the columbus zoo

While we were in Ohio, we visited the Columbus zoo! Kaya has been asking to go to a zoo for over a year now, so she was so excited to finally see the animals! We saw some flamingos… _MG_4308 … some real penguins at feeding time…_MG_4310 … and some kangaroos! I think they were my personal favorite (and probably Kaelyn’s too), because you could actually walk right through their exhibit and get quite close!_MG_4314 It was fun to see them hopping around (this one was named Alice)!_MG_4317 We also took the kids on the zoo carousel, which has been another dream of Kaya’s ever since she saw a picture of one in a library book. It was the best $2 I’ve spent in a long time._MG_4325 _MG_4326 _MG_4329 _MG_4328 The zoo had an awesome aquarium section (which was also great for getting out of the heat!), which included manatees and a sea turtle. My girls really loved seeing the big fish!_MG_4332 There were also some 5-month-old baby tigers. They were so much smaller than I was expecting, but so cute!_MG_4336These best friends held hands for a good distance through the park. I loved hearing their conversations and seeing them fall right back into being pals after being separated for a couple of months.
_MG_4347 _MG_4349 They also loved climbing on all the bronze animal statues together!_MG_4342 We ended up walking around as much of the zoo as we could for about 4 hours or so. After that, the kids were exhausted and the day was really starting to heat up, so we ended our visit with one of my all-time favorite animals- the giraffe!_MG_4353Somehow, our very tired kids still didn’t take an afternoon nap, and instead spent more time out in the yard and baby pool. We had some amazing Chinese food, and then everyone was more than ready for an early bedtime (with a story first, of course)!_MG_4354