The Hughes Zoo: What a ZOO!

Today we took the kids to the Houston ZOO for the very first time! They were SO excited! They talked about seeing the zebras, tigers, and fish for days prior. I don’t know how they came up with that random combination. We got donuts on the way and got to the zoo around 9:30. I kid you not, we had several small coolers, all four kids, and the stroller strapped to the roof of the minivan – it was very Griswald-ish of us!

When we first got to the zoo, we took the kids down to the water at Hermann Park and watched all of the ducks and birds – we figured we should show them this stuff first, before they see all of the crazy things at the zoo! We saw a Momma duck and her teeny-tiny babies! They were precious. Then we chased pigeons with our stroller. The kids thought it was hilarious, but I’m pretty sure we peeved off a couple of hippies. Oh well.

We got into the zoo (we got a super great deal on a one year membership – which will pay for itself in less than 2 visits!) The elephants got their bath at 10am, so we went to see that first. The kids had no clue as to how big an elephant actually is. We asked them how big they thought one was, and they just reached their hands waist-high on me & Marc! They were so shocked to see the huge elephants, and they did all kinds of tricks for us, such as shaking their heads, taking a bow, they were awesome. To top it off, there was a baby elephant getting a bath too, SO adorable!

We went through the primates and saw all kinds of monkeys. The kids got a kick out of them swinging around and one was in a baby pool like the kids have at T’s house, they thought that was pretty awesome too. We went through the African Forest (which felt as hot as I imagine Africa would be!) and saw some more animals. THEN, we got to FEED the GIRAFFES! It was so fun, you buy lettuce and then walk up this deck to a platform where you are face to face with the giraffes. We fed Miles (named that because his legs went on for miles!). Celia did not want to let go of her lettuce, so she had to have an intervention by the zookeeper! But she got a second chance and did awesome! Wyatt, Annalee & Tatum also fed Miles!

We also saw the sea lions, zebras (Celia was not going to let that go), a huge lion and lioness (Wyatt was OBSESSED with the lioness, which you had to go down into a tunnel to see – he kept saying “I wanna down the stairs and seeeeee the laaaaady!”) On our way out, we went to the children’s zoo and saw the prairie dogs & barn animals. Then Annalee was dying to see the “purple fah-mingos” – she was a little confused when they were orange, but still loved them. It was a great first trip, we look forward to many more to come!

We took everyone to the pool afterwards to cool off, what an awesome day!

Momma duck and her precious tiny babies!

Celia in Hermann Park. Crazy thought that I was here taking my bridal portraits years ago! It is so beautiful out here.

Watching the ducks (before we chased the pigeons...)

The Hughes Zoo at the ZOO!

The Momma and baby elephant get their bath and show us their tricks - they were adorable!!!

Watching the orangutans

More watching. I love how all of the areas are very kid friendly so they can climb up and get their own little view :)

More watching!

Two squirrels feeling very frisky! Marc thought this was HI-LARIOUS.

Tatum & Uncle Marc monkeyin' around

Annalee & Tatum!

Wyatt & Tatum!

Celia & Tatum!

3 little monkeys and 1 big monkey watching the swamp monkeys!

Little Swamp Monkey

Big Lion!

They roared at him constantly. :)

Going down the tunnel to see the lioness! She was gorgeous. Wyatt fell iin love with her and talked about "going downstairs to see the laaaaady" for the REST of the day!