Saturday morning came with the impromptu idea to make a morning trip to the zoo. Greer is a lover of all animals, and she's hit the age where she not only recognizes things, but she has a basic understanding of it too. There's a small zoo not far from us, and we thought it would be a fun little family outing before the heat of the day struck (apparently the heat didn't get that memo though). So we loaded up, made the 40ish minute drive and became just as giddy as Greer guessing over how excited she would be to see animals in person.
Fun tidbit, this zoo has been around for as long as I can remember, and I have the memories of visiting as a child. Just under two decades ago, the zoo was known for its tiger, Ruby who passed away in 2006. This monument for her in the middle of the zoo has been there forever and was recently restored. Now that Greer has had her photo with the life-size tiger statue, I think I'm going to have to dig up a photo of my sister and I with "Ruby."
From the zoo, there is a beautiful lookout of the city below. And fortunately, it also provided some shade from the sun's rays. After taking a look out from our mountain-top perch, we waited for the snow leopard to be released after the zoo keeper cleaned her cage and put out breakfast. The leopard's paws were huge, and all Greer could ask was "Hand? Hand?" because she wanted nothing more than to hold that large kitty cat's paws. She also blew the snow leopard about ten kisses, and waved with "hewwo!" and "bye-bye!"
Greer waved to every single animal she saw, even this stone statue. And it was quite possibly the cutest thing ever. She was very much enamored by the turtles, asking to hold their hands too. She has a pari of jammies with little turtles all over (they're her favorite), so seeing turtles in real-life was super cool for her.
And, I'll just have you notice those red leaves there in the corner. Just a little sweet reminder that fall isn't so far away :)
Everyone, meet Greer's turtle smile. You melt too, right?? After the turtles and a few other amphibians, we made our way to the train that rides around the perimeter of the zoo. It sounded just like a lawn mower, so Greer now believes that we were riding a giant "mo-mo" not a "choo choo." She loved it, so we'll let her think it was a mower if that's what she really wants :)
Besides, turtles (and dogs too) this girl's next animal love are pandas. She recognizes them on anything. So while the red panda didn't look just like the pandas she's used to see in her books (or on the side of Panda Express take-out boxes; parenting done right!), she still loved that she got to see a real panda!
Her amazement and wonder at all of the animals and the experience itself was so worth the hour and half in the summer heat. Making little memories like this are one of the things Pete and I talked and dreamed about before we were ever parents. It's so much more fun than we could imagine. And because we love our girl like crazy and like to spoil her every now and then she got to pick out a souvenir. She went with the stuffed snow leopard, and she finally got to hold its paw :)
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