Awesome August Saturday!

This weekend is the first weekend I have had off since the 4th of July weekend, so we decided to make the most of it.  We had been talking about going to the Omaha Zoo since early spring and the weekends never worked out, so we hopped in the car this morning and headed west. 

 We took Natalie to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines earlier this summer and she liked the penguins and prairie dogs, but was scared of most all of the other animals.  I tried to get her excited yesterday by asking her what we would see at the zoo and she was set on monkeys.  First stop this morning was the rain forest and Natalie was instantly entranced by the monkeys.  The picture above is Natalie watching monkeys--she could not be bothered to look or smile for a picture all day.

One cool baby

 We tried to plan our day around the heat so we hit the rain forest and the desert dome before heading to the train station.  Earlier in the week I brought home a train toy and Natalie had been pretty fascinated with it so we thought the train ride would be a good way to see a lot of animals with minimal walking.  While we didn't see as many animals as I thought we might, Natalie loved the train ride.  She sat with Daddy for a while but liked sitting between us like a big girl.

Excited for the train ride!

 All day she had her head on a swivel and did not want to look to take a picture.  I'm glad she was more interested in the zoo around her than the camera, but it would have been nice to catch a few smiles.

 After the train ride we grabbed some lunch and pretended to not hear her request for a carousel ride.  "Neigh?  Neigh?"  Natalie typically naps after lunch, so we knew we were working on borrowed time.  She could not have been a better trooper.  After the train we hit the bears, the ape house, the cat house, and the aquarium.

 Natalie loved the gorillas and watched one for a few minutes very closely.  She roared at the bears and the lions and liked getting out of her stroller to see things more up close, which was completely opposite from our last zoo visit earlier this summer.  Natalie also loved the aquarium which was no surprise.  Penguins are her favorite animals and she was so excited to see them.  She also loved the fish; there was a tunnel you walked through and she pointed to all of the fish and sharks.  She stood in front of a tank with small sharks and rays for several minutes and every time the rays swam up the glass she would make kissing noises at them.  It was adorable.  We finished off the day sharing an ice cream cone before leaving the zoo for the day.

It was an awesome day trip.  We got there at 9 as the zoo opened and we left around 2 and Natalie was so well behaved.  She never melted down and held off that nap until we got back in the car.  What a trooper!  I know we all had a great time and I'm so happy this zoo outing was more successful than the last.  After a long nap in the car, Natalie spent the evening playing in the sprinkler in the back yard; summer doesn't get much better.  A great summer day followed by a second day of no work!