Zoo!

We love the zoo and we finally made it to see the new dinosaur exhibit.  To say we had a great time is an understatement!  As Aidan gets older, everything just gets more and more fun!  It has always been fun and you don't think it could get better, but we just always have such a great time together!  He was really into the zoo and all the animals this time, and I could tell it was a much more meaningful trip for him than in the past.  He really wanted to go before his birthday, but we just couldn't get it in.  Planned it for the week after, and he was excited all week and we were literally counting down until time to go!  He made it through the whole thing on foot until right near the end.  He got tired and had to ride on Dada's shoulders.  Didn't take him long to fall asleep once we got back in the car!

 

Can't really see it in the pic, but he is doing his dinosaur claw

On the tram ride over to Africa.  Lemur is on his back and he is ready to go!

We took several pics under this sign because I couldn't get it "right".  Aidan wanted to be directly under the sign for the pic.  :)

 

We were amazed at the size of the TRex.  If nothing else, this exhibit really puts that into perspective.  We saw one dinosaur when we first went in and initially thought it was the TRex, were surprised to read the sign and see we were wrong.  A few dinosaurs later, we rounded a corner, and it was towering over all the rest.  Unbelievable how big it was!  We all had dropped jaws!

They had a neat little area where the kids could dig for fossils.  Aidan found a shark's tooth (really cool) and some type of shell.

Looking at the guide to see identify what we found.

Checking out the dino jeep

This is when Aidan saw the Lemurs!  He just stopped right in the middle of the walkway looking at them.  He tries to conceal excitement sometimes, but we knew he was thrilled to see them.  

 

Our favorites!  The giraffes!!  The one in the middle is the new baby and it was trying to get a kiss from its mom!  Very cute.  They were all running around together and having a good time.

On the giraffe feeding deck.  We have always been lucky with this.  The giraffes are always there and Aidan has always been able to feed them.  He loves this part and is no longer shy about it at all.  He walks right up and feeds them without missing a beat.  

 

The carousel!  It is always a race to get on your favorite animal!  Only one giraffe on there, and he is usually the first one to be picked!  We went with the elephant.

A new tradition has been getting ice cream.  It is one of the very few food items that is actually affordable!

Notice the extra skip in Aidan's step and that both feet are off the ground in this picture.  He has on his new shoes and he was so proud of them!  Zigs.  Apparently the "it" shoe in young kids today.

 

The otter was actually so playful and active we could never really get a good pic of him.  He literally never stopped moving and didn't slow down at all.

 

Finally made it to the end, and we were all worn out.  Aidan had to get a ride back to the car.