Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Our Wednesday Ritual

So since I have been home with the baby it has become our Wednesday ritual to go to the local animal park after nap time. We have a great time walking around and looking at all the animals, feeding the ducks and strolling through the aquariums. It's extra fun when nana can meet us for the day. This trip I thought it would be great to pack the camera and take a picture of everything Caden paused to look at or got excited over so I could show the day through his eyes, sorta. 

The first stop is usually to the meerkats. He loves to point and giggle and these cute little guys as they dig and fidget.
 
After the meerkats we go to the walk thru aviary where Caden can get up close and personal with the birds. This day these two guys were following us around. I think they had figured out stroller = dropped treats, lol.

 
They were very pretty though. I loved the bright blue!

 

Next we move on to the Giraffes. We take Caden uo to the feeding station and he loves to see their long tounges. This day they were not so interested in us and stayed out in the pasture eating :)

 

From there we mosey over to the Singing Dogs. This one took an interest in Caden. They sat staring at each other. Caden babbled to him and the dog would just cock his head to the side and listen. When we went to leave the little guy was Caden the whole time, until he turned the corner.

 
From here he points to the Llamas, so we're off to see them. We always ask them if their mama's a llama? Then Caden looks at me and I say why of course your mama's a llama and he belly laughs. Makes me smile!



We turned around to see this guy stalking us, lol. He was snapping at us through the fence and followed Caden all the way down to the end. I was talking to him the whole time but he was only interested in the stroller. 



When we turned the corner we were face to face with these guys. Caden kept pointing at them and babbling. We think he was pointing out that they were eating out of a bowl.



Just across the way is the baby nursery so we took him in there to oh and aw over the little ones. There were baby deer and ocelots. There were baby land tortoises. But at the end exhibit there was a baby wallaby in this adorable makeshift pouch. We all loved this little one. So cute :)



So this made us want to walk over to the Kangaroo walk about. We saw this albino wallaby who looked like he had not ever missed a meal! The sign by him states that albino animals hardly every live more then a few years because they can't blend into their natural environments and predators can find them easily. So this little (hahaha) guy was saved by the zoo, awwww. And because this is a family friendly blog he has been given a modesty dot :)


As we walked through the exhibit we noticed a lot of mama kangaroos with full pouches. I think we counted 3 babies on board. They crack me up laying out propped up on an elbow just chilling. Caden was talking away to these ladies. They would look over at him and then just close their eyes in the warm sun all cozy and happy. Love it!


From there nana spotted the train and we had to get on cause my little guy LOVES trains. He had a great time and to our surprise he actually looked at all the animals as we went by. He would point to each once and look at us for an explanation. The train has a loud speaker system so the conductor can explain what we are looking at as we go by. Caden would look at the speaker and talk back, lol.


This mama was standing guard over her baby who was only 2 days old. So cute :)


Couldn't help it, had to post this one. Proof he has a top tooth. He's growing up WAY too fast.


After we made our way through the zoo it was time for Caden's favorite part of the park, the aquarium. He loves it for all the things he can see eye level, all the things he can touch and of course cause he can get out of the stroller and walk! 



Nana is so patient with him. They are buddies foe sure. This tank has huge lobsters and I swear Caden licked his lips, lol. He always stops at this one and just stares at the spiny guys walking around.


More proof that he is all boy. Every single tank that holds a snake, frog or anything slimy he stops and watches. These guys are poisonous dart frogs. They remind me of those plastic toys you push down and they pop up in the air really high. They would be just sitting there and then all of a sudden hop to another rock, made Caden crack up.


I can't help it but every time we stop at the penguins I recite lines from Madagascar. These guys had just been fed and were getting ready to go for a swim. They feed them twice a day 10am and 4pm, so cool to watch. 


Walking like such a big boy:)


Much to nana's dismay Caden really likes the eels. Nana hates snakes or anything that resembles a snake.So she stops for him to look and pretends to not care, but I can see her skin crawling, lol.


I love this fish! Have no idea what he is but he has blue stripped teeth! How cool is that? I will hold Caden up to see the tank and this fish swims right to the front of the tank and will watch us walk back and forth. I wonder if they have as much fun looking at us as we do looking at them?


Sting rays! You can pet these guys and for a small fee they'll give you some food and you can feed them. I love these guys too. Caden likes to look at them but when one gets close his grip gets very tight. He never squirms or cries but you can tell he's not sure how he feels about them.


This guy is hardly ever down in the water so this is the first time Caden has seen him. He was very active and swimming around. Caden stopped and looked but refused to get too close. I think this park has 5 different species of albino creatures.


Caden was not very interested in these little guys, but I love otters so I stoppped and watched them for a while. These little ones had just arrived at the zoo 30 minutes prior to this photo. They are Asian otters and will be one of the main features of the new aquarium building that will open in December this year. There are three otters and they are super cute, go check them out!  The park is open 365 days a year. The zoo is open 10-5 and the aquarium stays open until 10pm! We go a ton during the summer at night cause it's air conditioned and Caden can run like mad all he wants. Great family fun.


3 comments:

Amie said...

So cool! Great visit! (modesty dot...lol!!!)

AZ HS Spotlight said...

What great pics! He is getting so big, he looks like a little man! That's great you have such a neat thing to do on Wednesdays! And Thursday is Story Time!

Sher said...

where is this? I wanna go!