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Fort Worth Zoo

Today is Nonni's birthday, so we decided to hang out with her and Grandpa all day. Since we got rained out of visiting the zoo on our last trip and the boys love going to the Alaskan zoo with their Nonni, we figured it was a great activity for her birthday!

I have spent the last few weeks pumping the boys up for how much fun the zoo was going to be. I love our Alaskan zoo, but it's fairly small and limited to pretty much just arctic animals. I just knew the variety of animals at the Fort Worth zoo was going to blow their little minds!

I don't know why I was surprised they wanted to go to the snake & reptile exhibit first - they are two little boys, after all... And they were even up to petting the snake! So they have to be cajoled into petting a furry goat at the fair, but a slithering snake? No problem!

I feel like we were in this exhibit forever looking at snakes. Probably because the lighting was so challenging and I was playing around with my settings trying to get decent photos. Reflective cases are a bit hard to work around...!

We finally made it back outside and started wandering around. We opted for the stroller rental because it is a lot of walking and I wanted to maximize what the boys got to see. The fact that it provided a little extra shade for my two pale little guys was a nice bonus! The kangaroos were also all about the shade - it was a hot day! And shout out to the kangaroos - they were always one of my favorites because they are my highschool mascot. Go Roos!

This boy *loves* maps. Paper maps, digital maps and big maps on signs. He was so excited about how this giant map, but was quick to point out the water park was missing from this map because it's a fairly new addition. How is he so observant?!?

Giraffes - so pretty and graceful until you see them trying to eat. Poor guy was really having a hard time grazing. I guess that's what happens when you blow through all the low hanging leaves. ;)

Doesn't Nonni look like she is having the best birthday ever?? She was helping Henry feed the fish in the pond. He had the right concept, but is aim was not so great...

Lunch time! I think I was more excited about the Burger King crowns than my kids were, but they wore them anyhow. And for the record, Thomas' obsession with eating raw onions hasn't gone away yet. Poor Nonni was on the receiving end of the "Smell my breath!" over and over again. Good thing Nonni is a loving person!

We headed over to see the primates after lunch since it was mostly indoors and it was getting hot outside! Henry was not at all interested in standing at the window to see the Bonobos (I think I spent my childhood thinking they were Chimpanzees). This was good planning on his part, some other little boy came over and was standing next to Thomas when this Bonobo suddenly whipped around and smacked the glass super hard. The boys both screamed a little - Thomas is still giggling about it in this photo, Henry was super glad to be far, far back. Ha!

Of course, their dad is not one to be upstaged by a primate, so he had them shrieking and laughing by steering their cart every which direction - including a little bit of off roading.  

We finally made it over to the water park that is inside the zoo. They pretty much kept asking about the water park as soon as we arrived, but I made them wait until we saw all the fun animals because I figured they would be out of energy once they ran all over this place. And I was right - they had such a blast playing with everything. They both even managed to go down water slides all by themselves - though I didn't get any photos since I was obviously keeping a close eye on them. 

They had these water toys you could buy to spray your friends and this giant wall of knobs and faucets to refill the toys. I didn't buy them the toys since they would have a very limited use in Alaska, but they were more excited about spraying water with the wall of knobs. Simple pleasures...!

Overall, they had a blast despite the huge difference in temperature from home! And Nonni seemed more than happy to spend her birthday hanging out with all of us.

Happy birthday, Nonni! We love you whole bunches!