GRANDPARENTS VISIT - DAY AT THE ZOO

The first day after Mom and Dad arrived for their visit back in April, we went to the Richmond Zoo. We thought going on Friday meant we would beat the weekend crowds... we were wrong. That morning, there were about a thousand eight year olds there. Made for an interesting day.

Right off the bat, Grandpa and Luke were attached at the hip. They really enjoyed seeing and watching all the animals.

The boys with Grandpa and Grandma Charles.

One of the highlights of the whole afternoon was the Giraffe exihibit.

This is probably the most popular thing to do in the zoo because of how the exhibit is set up. Basically, there is a bridge over the giraffe area that allows the spectators to be eye to eye with the animals, and makes it possible to feed them. Due to the kagillion elementary school kids that were EVERYWHERE, it was hard to get that close. But thanks to Grandpa's persistence and him having no qualms about pushing little people out of the way, Luke got up to the front so he could feed the Giraffe.

Grey pretty much spent the entire day... looking on.

The second highlight of the day, was the exhibit where you could feed these little birds. I forget what they were called, but they looked like parakeets. I went in to take pictures, but got a little freaked out when Dad handed me the feeding stick and three birds attacked it at once.

Outside the bird feeding exhibit, I was able to capture a beautiful Peacock in all its feathered glory.

Outside the bird feeding exhibit were also these riding toys... a boat and a train. Luke shared his first ride with another little boy who was just as excited about riding a train as Luke was

We finally broke Grey free of his stroller and let him enjoy a boat ride.

At this point, most of the elementary kids had started to clear out, so seeing all the zoo had to offer was much easier.

Grandma helped Luke feed some billy goats.

Grey, back in his stroller, was content to chew on his shoe.

Luke decided to take charge of his own stroller and insisted on pushing it. In these pictures he pushing up a pretty steep hill.

After seeing everything, we headed towards the entrance. The monkey that had caught our interest at the beginning of the morning, was even funnier now.

Just as we were leaving, we spotted a small carousel. I thought the boys would enjoy going for a ride. Luke wasn't quite sure what to think, but Grey absolutely loved it.

The trip to the zoo was a lot of fun for everyone.

I was so happy when someone offered to take a picture of all of us. She told me she understood, being a mom herself, that it's nice for the mom to be in a picture every once in a while, since we're usually the one taking all the pictures.