Evie's Birthday Zoo Trip

On Evie's actual birthday, Todd took the day off from work, and we went to the zoo. Our sister-in-law, Jillian, met us there with her kids, and we did everything Evie wanted to do. We looked at the ducks floating in the water.

We saw the pink flamingos and tried to find the 5 still-slightly-fuzzy babies. Evie thought that they were awesome, and it took some doing to get her to move along to the next thing!

Apparently, Todd was on a bird kick because he and Jillian then wanted to take the kids through Bird World. The only trouble was that strollers aren't allowed inside, and Elizabeth was asleep, so I stayed outside with her while everyone else looked at all the birds.

Once we were all reunited, we passed by a fun sign that says "How Far Can You Jump?" Everyone took their turns jumping, which Evie really enjoyed--especially once Daddy helped her "jump" really far! Then, of course, he had to spend several minutes giving each girl a turn.

We had planned to ride on the zoo carousel, so that was our next stop. We had free tickets, so I took Evie on the ride while Todd stayed with Elizabeth and took pictures. Since Evie's favorite animals are lions, we found a big one on the very edge that wouldn't scare Evie by going up and down, and we climbed right up on "Simba." Jillian and Anya tried getting on a zebra close by, but Jillian wasn't able to get up, so they walked back to another one almost halfway around the carousel. That's when Evie decided she was done. The ride hadn't even started yet, and she was already chanting "I'm all done! I'm all done!" I kept telling her that we were going to have so much fun riding on Simba's back, but she kept trying to slide down. I had to wrap my legs around hers to hold her in place, and hold her hands around the pole to make sure she didn't fall off and get hurt. While the ride was going, she didn't cry or scream, but the entire time, she kept telling me "I'm all done! I'm all done!" Todd told me later that he could hear her every time we sailed past on Simba's back.

When the ride was finally over, we decided that we needed some lunch to steady our nerves. Usually we take our own food into the zoo, but in honor of Evie's birthday, we'd planned to pay the horrifically high prices at one of the restaurants. She got a slice of cheese pizza (which Todd ended up taking to work for lunch the next day!) and ate a total of two bites before mooching some of her Daddy's chicken strips. At about the time lunch was over, it started raining, so we hurried through the 20 feet of drizzle drops to the lion information building. They were having a lion feeding demonstration, and we wanted to make sure Evie could see the whole thing. It was really interesting learning about how big lions can get and how much they eat in a day. Evie was pretty much glued to the glass during the entire demonstration!

Then, despite the fact that it was lightly raining, we had to go around the lion exhibit to one of our favorite spots in the entire zoo: the lion enclosure. We wanted Evie to be able to have a good long communication with her lion buddies before heading home. Unfortunately, my camera's battery kept dying, so I didn't get very long videos, but some of the short ones I got were really fun to watch. One of my favorites happened just after the battery died again on the third video: the one lion tried to awaken the other one by nudging him in the face repeatedly with his paw. I was bummed that I missed catching it on camera!

Obviously, Evie had a great time hanging out with the lions. It was actually really difficult to pry her away so we could go home. I think, except for her 10-minute panic on the carousel, Evie really enjoyed all of her birthday trip to the zoo. We also really enjoyed having Jillian, Anya and William along for the trip! Happy Birthday, you silly two-year-old girly; Mommy and Daddy love you!