Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh, my!

It's off to the zoo we go. Aunt Dava brought Charlie and Emma to town and even though it was going to be a very hot day we decided to make a morning trip to the zoo before it got too bad. I'm not sure how excited Malia, McKenna or Emma were but Charlie was VERY pumped!

Friday evening I gave Charlie a call and he could not stop talking about all of the animals we would see. He has a small obsession with alligators right now {he's a Swap People fan} so I was very excited to surprise him with the mini gators {Okay, I'm not sure the exact name of the tiny things but they LOOK like mini gators}. When we first arrived and walked in Charlie yelled, "Look mom, it's a gator." One would think he was talking about the reptile but NOPE he then added, "A John Deere Gator!" I found it hilarious that Charlie was able to find his second love, something John Deere, that ironically had the same name as the creature we were searching for.

It was obvious from the excitement of our first spotting that it was going to be a great morning. After spotting one animal Charlie would immediately be on the lookout for what was coming next. He was even able to learn the names of some animals from different zoo staff members... and for the other animals we had fun making up our own names. {In the future this would be a fun career path, I found I am a natural at naming zoo animals!}

Malia and McKenna did not really show the same excitement that their cousin had. They spent majority of our visit sleeping.

Emma didn't really share her brothers excitement but she showed a little more interest than her cousins. She did really love her rattle and only lost two binkies throughout our mini adventure.

Above are a few pictures of the cousins throughout the zoo. By the time we left the zoo it had started to sprinkle and was getting very hot. Charlie had a blast, I got to enjoy some sister time and there were no meltdowns. All-in-all it was a very successful morning and a great first cousin outing.