JACKSONVILLE ZOO

The day after Waylen arrived, we went down to the zoo in Jacksonville, FL. It was a little chilly when we got to the zoo, but it turned out to be a really nice day. Not too hot, not too cold!! The zoo was sooooo busy that day, the line to get in was pretty long, but it didn't seem too crowded once we got into the zoo. The kids always love to go to the zoo, and just like always Kayla wanted to get right in with all of the animals. The monkeys were a favorite and also the fish aquarium. Kayla really liked the "kitties" and kept wanting to see more. Hayden just kept wanting to go see the giraffes and have a chance to feed them. But (un)fortunately there was only one giraffe close enough to feed, and there was a really long line to feed that one giraffe. --They had an exhibit at the zoo where you could pay extra for a "meet and greet with stingrays". That is what the kids are doing in the top left picture. The stingrays were kept in a huge pool, but they never did swim very close to the edge of the pool. They tended to keep to the middle of the pool, so it wasn't much of a "meet and greet". Waylen and I had went in with the kids and Bradley, but we thought you only had to pay if you wanted to try for a chance at touching the stingrays. Well, we ended up getting kicked out because we didn't have an arm bracelet, and you had to have one to even be standing under the tent. The kids stayed in with Bradley, but Nicolette was the only one that ended up touching a stingray. --Before leaving the zoo, we went to the gift shop, so the kids could get a souvenir. I figured Hayden would pick out some type of stuffed animal, but I had no idea that it would be a huge snake. Then, Kayla wanted one too, so we ended up with two 4 1/2 feet snakes!!