Niabo Zoo

Before summer ended and I had to go back to work, Lesley and I thought that the kiddos needed a little trip to the zoo.  It was pretty much a last minute decision one day.  The weather was sunny and beautiful, but a little too cool for swimming, so we thought it would be the perfect day for the zoo.  So we packed up the kids (and our cousin Claire and our Nana) and off to the zoo we went.  We chose Niabi Zoo because it seemed to be the perfect size for our kids and it would be a quick ride in the car.  The first stop at the zoo was the petting area.  Jack really wasn't a fan of having the animals lick the food out of his hand (he must be a germa-phobe like his mother), but Finley loved the animals. 

Then we were off to ride the ponies.  Since Jack was a bit crabby today due to teething and the diaper rash that was accompanying the teething, I didn't even bother getting him a ticket to ride the ponies.  I could just imagine him throwing a seven while I try to hold him and make him stay on the pony. So maybe next time we will give the ponies a try. But Finley and Claire enjoyed their pony rides, and Jack and Layton just took it all in from their strollers. 

It was then time to see some more animals.  Claire was sort of "attacked" by the birds when she was in the bird area and feeding the birds.  I guess all of them wanted to sit on her, fly very closely by her head or get fed by her all at the same time.  I actually missed this encounter because I was getting Jack a snack at the time, so sadly to say I don't have any pictures of the encounter.  But I don't think she will be too eager to go into a bird cage any time soon. 

This picture pretty much describes what we were dealing with during the later part of the day :-(

I think everyone would agree that the best part of the day was the ride on the choo choo train.  This was Jack's favorite part of the day, he loved the train ride so much that he was screaming and crying when it was time to get off.  I'm sure we more than made a scene for many of the onlookers.  Yes I was that mother with the screaming, crying kid by the time we were leaving the zoo.  Now my kid usually does not act like this, so I am putting full blame on the teeth, the diaper rash, and going without a nap the entire day.  Thank goodness Claire was there to entertain him during the car ride home.  So despite a teething crabby Jack, a temper tantrum at not wanting to get off the choo choo, we will definitely be going back to the zoo.