The First Of Many Zoo Posts To Come

For Christmas my parents gave us a membership to the Fort Worth Zoo. "Why the Fort Worth Zoo?" you may ask, seeing as how we live significantly closer to the Dallas Zoo.

And to that I retort, "have you been to both zoos?". Because if you have, then you know why. Because the Fort Worth Zoo rocks. That, and because my parents will use any means possible to get their grandchildren into Tarrant County as often as possible.

It took until late March for us to actually get the membership activated and this week until we made our first big trip to the zoo. Dane and Aunt SheySha came along (I can't get over how Bennett says Gran and Lisa...I'll be so sad when he outgrows these precious mispronunciations).

This is what we found upon arriving in the parking lot.


Apparently it is field trip time around these parts. As crazy as it was outside the entrance with hundreds of preschoolers and kindergartners being sorted, tagged and assigned "special friends" to stay attached to, once inside the crowds weren't too bad at all.

This was also our first major outing for the double stroller. It is wonderful! So easy to push, comfy for the kids and it fits through doors. Hooray! (I am totally having one of those "when did I become such a grown-up, mom-person?" moments as I gush about my new stroller.)


Bennett absolutely loved seeing all the animals. He used all his noises to call out to elephants, apes, orangutans, bears, lions and birds. After getting his fill of viewing each exhibit he'd eagerly request "Moe! Moe am-mals!"

And this box of animal crackers was his treasured possession. He carried it with him all day, pointing out animals in the zoo that matched the pictures on his box. It's getting hard to find the old school circus boxes of animal crackers and my mom was told at one store they are going to be discontinued. So sad!


When we stopped to let Dayton eat Bennett discovered this fascinating vending machine. So many buttons! And a little door that swings open and closed! What fun!


Dayton was a sweetheart as usual.


We stayed for just under two hours, saw about half of the animals and left before anyone was too hungry, tired or hot. Perfect! The advantage of having membership is that we can come and go without feeling guilty for not doing and seeing everything. Tickets aren't dirt cheap so I could totally be tempted to force the kids past their limits in order to squeeze every last potential moment of fun out of our trip.

Hopefully we'll have lots more zoo trips in the coming months. I'll try to spare you detailed blog accounts of each and every visit. But I make no promises.

Give me a holler if you're ever interested in going to the FW Zoo!