Houston Zoo

What's a family to do when Daddy has a lot of time off? Go to the zoo, of course! Probably should have gone before they raised admissions prices and Megan was old enough to require a ticket, but that really didn't matter in the end. It was a nice weather day (high 60s and sunny!), practically perfect for a day of animal perusing.

The girls were a little restless in the stroller, wondering what all the hullabaloo was about around them with people everywhere and nothing of interest in sight, except for some ticket booths and trees. Once we pulled into the first exhibit, though, they were excited and no longer content to hang out in the stroller and just look around. The aquarium was our first stop.

We got close to a lot of animals throughout the day, but I think being this close to the elephants was amazing. You really got an idea of just how big they were. And how smart, as one of the zookeepers came out and offered them pieces of bread to do tricks (like wave their ears and pose)
We saw several other animals, of course. That's what the zoo's for. The girls sometimes just pressed their faces against the fence just because that's what they were supposed to do, though they couldn't see any animals of interest at the time.
Not far past the elephants was the African area. Complete with a mock tribal village, drums to play on, monkeys, and giraffes.
We strolled past the lions and tigers (no bears, oh my!), but the big sleeping cats held little interest to the girls and we eventually found ourselves in the children's zoo area where the girls zeroed in on their all time favorite thing: the slide.
Before we left, I made a point in dragging them away from the slide and going to the petting zoo where each kid could take a brush and brush the goats. Despite initial protest, the girls LOVED wandering around and brushing the goats. Cadence made a point of brushing every single one at least once.
And, of course, once the girls saw these statues that had to climb on and ride them like "horsies", their new favorite past time.
And when I saw this picture of Megan, I couldn't help but think of a similar one I took 4 1/2 years ago in San Diego. Like mother, like daughter, eh? (Now if only we had one of Nana sitting on a turtle!)