The Zoo!

Well, I have to give it to Columbus...for family-friendly things to do...they have Raleigh beat by a long shot. We have not even begun to explore all of it yet, but as we do, of course we will update you and give you Siskel and Ebert, I mean Caden and Jenna's review :)

We had an extra day at home when Nana and Papa flew up in May before we left for NYC so we decided to go check out the zoo! We are only 30 ish minutes away and it is supposed to be one of the top in the country. It is Jack Hannah's zoo and he does regular appearances there! It also has a huge, huge water park like Emerald Point, but of course we are not old enough to fully utilize that yet. It was the first time the twins had been to the zoo or seen lots of animals up close really, so we were excited to show them. We are all into animals and animal sounds now so we thought it would be a hit!

First, this picture has nothing to do with the twins, but we were looking at the Lion exhibit, standing at the rail and up pops mama lion. We were shocked at how huge her head is!? Anyway, not the sweet Nala from the Lion King that's for sure!

After visiting a few countries, we took a break and rode the carousel they have on campus. The last time I had the twins on a carousel was Pullen Park before we left Raleigh. Remember Jenna loved it, Caden would only breathe if I climbed up there and rode it with him. Well....Caden has joined the party!!!! He LOVED it. Look at that face?!? Before we got him off the horse, he leaned down and gave it a head hug. Melt my heart...

The big shocker came when we visited our first "big" animal - the gorilla's. Caden loved it, watching them run around and swing. Jenna? dug her nails into Ryan and turned her head afraid!? Who knew Jenna was afraid of anything? quite literally? Anyway, it became a trend. Any large animal exhibit we came to, Jenna turned shy and cuddly - cute but very ironic for my fearless Miss Independent!

Jenna came alive again at her favorite exhibit...the fish!

We love Nana and Papa!

And Caden's highlight...besides the carousel was....drum roll....the Polar Bear. The child looked like we had just told him it was Christmas Day. He went nuts watching the Polar Bear swim around and play with the ball as you will see in the video. Jenna did good when we were upstairs watching the bear. But they had a tunnel you could walk down and view "underneath" the tank - that's when she went silent-afraid Jenna on us. Either way, it was pure joy to watch Caden's excitement!

What a wonderful day of making memories! ( I asked the Zoo employee to take our picture with the sign included....so she cut out the huge "Columbus Zoo" part of the sign...naturally.) :)