Jacksonville Zoo

We had such a good time this weekend visiting with Valerie and Matt and going to the zoo. We drove over to Jacksonville on Friday afternoon. That evening, we went to dinner with my cousin Kristen and her husband, Mark.
Saturday morning, we got up and ready to head over to the zoo. We spent the entire day there! Whew! Kayleigh sat in the stroller from the car to the entrance, and then walked the rest of the day. Wow! She was a trooper, to say the least. She was also having so much fun, and never wanted to sit in the stroller, no matter how many times we asked! Brian did really well, as well. He only ate once at lunch time, and I think was too tired then to get a good meal. He was possibly the one who was the most ready to leave at the end of the day.
Here are some highlights from our day:
**We went first to the sting rays and got to pet them. Erik grabbed food out of the water and hand fed one. Kayleigh liked watching them, but DID NOT want to touch them! She ended up petting one at the end of the day.
**I took 61 pictures of the elephants using the super fast mode on my camera. One was drinking water and then later throwing dirt on himself (herself??). I wanted to try and get some good pictures of it with the camera, but I'm not even sure with all of those pictures that I succeeded. Kayleigh said hi to the elephants for our friend, Jenna.
**We rode the train around the park, getting to look at the animals from the back side of their enclosures. We probably could have skipped this part, but I'm afraid if we had not gotten tickets, Kayleigh would have been upset.
**Kayleigh got to see some live penguins for the first time! They were so close that she could have touched them if not for the glass! You can see her smile in her reflection in the slide show.
**Kayleigh is getting braver and climbed over a rope bridge all by herself! This was in "Play Park" where the zoo was also having Water Safety Day. Kayleigh got a little stuffed penguin, a whistle and water bottle from some of the booths set up for that day.
**We got to feed the giraffes!!!!! This was my favorite part and what I looked forward to all day. I was a little disappointed that they wouldn't let you touch the giraffes, and of course I was very tempted to when the worker had his back turned.
**I have always told Kayleigh that if she does the Seminole chop (from FSU) to the gators, they would come and eat her. When we got to the alligators, she tried her luck and did the war chant at them. The funniest thing was that an alligator invariably moved in her direction whenever she would do it, so we told her to say, "chomp, chomp, chomp" at them to get them to leave her alone. That also worked, much to our surprise! :)
**Kayleigh saw the gorillas and told them, "goodnight gorilla" from her book.
**Kayleigh's favorite animal??? The goats. WHAT?!?!?! We think it's because they were one of the last animals that she saw, and she got to pet them and brush them. Oh well.
**After a long and hot day, we hit the Shaved Ice place by Valerie and Matt's house. Yum!! Cool and refreshing and just what we needed!