Category Archives: zoo

mill mountain zoo

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Back in the fall (when the weather was still warm and glorious!), we went up to Mill Mountain Zoo for the first time ever. It was the morning of Kaya’s birthday party, and we thought it would be a really fun activity to do with the Grandparents in town. Luckily for us, our friends, Ben and Brittany, were also in the area, and agreed to meet us there. We had quite a group! It wasn’t crowded at all, and it also happened to be a special-event weekend, where they had different booths set up by various nonprofits. The girls ended up getting various free things, like sunglasses, bouncy balls, cups, pencils, and bubbles. They even received several quality books courtesy of the public library.

Eve really knows how to rock a pair of sunglasses!Blowing bubbles kept Nella occupied for quite a while.The actual zoo was incredibly small, so we really only saw a few animals, but I really enjoyed the simplicity of it. Some favorites included this Snow Leopard……the Red Panda (who we also got to observe during feeding time!)… …the Bald Eagle……the Red Wolf…
…the Eastern Screech Owl……and some turtles! The girls loved seeing all of these in real life so much.There were also some fun crafts, like this paper Red Panda and some pinwheel flowers! While the older girls did crafts, Eve had some Grandma snuggles and snacks.She also loved having some extra play time with Daddy. Her cute little belly button peeking out in this one really gets me.We all went to an “Animal Encounter” show, where we learned some facts about ferrets, and the girls even got to pet one. Afterward, we waited for the zoo train, which only runs once an hour. Ben read a book to everyone while we were in line.I also took a bunch of pictures while we waited, because why not?Yay! So happy I could spend some time with Brittany.And my mom!Baby switch! No one was quite ready for this picture.We squeezed onto the train, all except grandparents because we literally took up the entire thing. It was such a fun little ride!We went around the zoo twice!Ben and Brittany headed home, but we stayed a little longer so we could do some of the extra activities. We met a giant Red Panda!Kaya and Kaelyn both had their faces painted. This might have been the highlight of the trip for them. I loved watching their reactions when they looked in the mirror for the first time. Cutest little kitty. Sweetest little Dalmatian.This is surely one of my favorite memories. I’m grateful for all of these amazing Grandparents and our wonderful friends. Those smiling faces are everything to me.

five on friday (06/02)

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ONE. We kicked off our week with celebrating Memorial Day! It was so nice to have Michael home for an extra day, and although we didn’t do too much of anything, I enjoyed having a little more family time. Michael did some work on the house (still replacing shutters), and I took the girls out for a walk and to the playground. I think Michael was glad to have some uninterrupted time to get things done, and hey, I always love playing outside with my kids. I love when Kaya asks me to swing with her.
Her new trick is “twisting around” on the swing and going in all different directions!

TWO. On Tuesday, the library in a neighboring town held a special petting zoo event, so we headed out to see the animals. It was so insanely busy there that people were parking and walking to it from far up the street, which meant that there really wasn’t a lot of time for each child to pet the animals. Kaya was in love with this little goat though, and she loved feeding her some grass.

THREE. We have our own zoo at home! What is cuter than a baby in a hooded animal towel?

FOUR. We also went to our library to get some new books and do the craft of the month. The girls made paper rainbows!

FIVE. As luck would have it, on the way home from the library, a real rainbow appeared in the sky! Kaya has been obsessed with rainbows for the past two years, and I don’t see her love for them ending anytime soon. After a little more rain, we actually ended up with a double rainbow and a very pink sky, which was so fascinating to Kaya and Kaelyn.

Fun fact: I loved rainbows as a kid too, and even used to painstakingly write the dates of my journal entries in rainbow colors. I can’t wait to show those to Kaya someday!

Happy Friday!

Linking up here, here, and here today!

the columbus zoo

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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

utah’s hogle zoo

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Are you ready for photo-overload? I just had a hard time narrowing it down when there were so many beautiful animals and fun moments with my two favorite people!hoglezoo20137After everyone else left Utah to head home to Virginia, it was just the three of us! With no scheduled events or time commitments, we wanted to do something fun together, just our little family. So, we chose the zoo, and I’m so glad we did. It was more than worth it for the memories we made.

(Michael’s wearing my sunglasses, and Kaya’s cuddling with this little puppy that the grandson of the couple we stayed with lent to her. I think she had a little crush on him, so she carried his puppy around a lot! Haha)hoglezoo20132 We were all pretty excited looking at the elephants!hoglezoo20131 _MG_8609 hoglezoo20136 _MG_8619 Bath time!_MG_8649 hoglezoo20134 Kaya loved the giraffes the most, but that could have just been because it was the animal we were able to get closest to._MG_8741 _MG_8740 _MG_8764 _MG_8694 I fell in love with the polar bear (which just happened to swim behind Michael as I was taking this picture)! That one on the top right is completely made of Legos!hoglezoo20135

Did you know that polar bears have special eyelids that act like sunglasses to protect their eyes from the light reflecting off the snow?_MG_8712 hoglezoo20133

We walked around for about 3 hours (something that would never happen in the Virginia humidity)! Kaya was a trooper and did so well, and passed out just before we left._MG_8772I’m so grateful for my own little family to enjoy days like these with 🙂