The Nashville Zoo

So, the girls and I ventured out to the Nashville Zoo this week. It was my first time there, and obviously their first time.

I didnt know if they would enjoy themselves yet, but they really did enjoy all of the animals that they could actually see from their stroller.

A couple of lessons I learned from our first visit to the zoo.

Lesson #1: No hairbows at the zoo.

This was the first picture taken at the zoo, and you will see all four hairbows in tact. This is the last picture you will see all four hairbows. Ruthie pulled hers out and then headed for Maddie's bows. Then Maddie fed one of her bows to a duck, so I was only able to recover 3 hairbows to return home with. Next time will be a hairbow free visit.

Lesson #2: Bring more snacks!

I thought I had packed a good number of snacks, but I was mistaken. I ended up stopping at almost every snack stand along the paths at the zoo to get extra animal crackers, or milk, etc. In the above picture, Ruthie has resorted to even stealing Rachel's snacks out of her tray. Meanwhile, Maddie was reaching over and stealing out of Ruthie's tray. It was a vicious cycle. As long as they had food, they were happy to sit in their stroller and ride along.

Lesson #3: Dress appropriately

This has nothing to do with us, but just an observation. Some white baby tigers are on display for a few months at the zoo, so we had to stop by there.

While we were looking at the tigers we saw this.

Really?

Lesson #4: Hands on is more fun!

We were not able to go into a lot of the hands on exhibits because they were "no stroller" buildings. Next time I have an extra set of hands with me, we will go in there. We were able to go to the petting zoo part of the park though. It was fenced in, so I felt ok letting the girls out by myself. They immediately found a baby goat.

Maddie kept "loving" the goat which is her version of a hug.

Ruthie befriended the baby goat also.

They had brushes out for you to brush the goat, but Ruthie just wanted to wear it as a bracelet. We hit the Purell station after the goat loving.

It is hard to see in this picture, but this is the meerkat exhibit. The girls really enjoyed watching them run around and dig.

Mommy enjoyed the meerkat exhibit also! (you would climb up into the exhibit! I kicked out a 4 year old for this shot!)

Lesson #5: Animal identification

I knew that there would be one issue before we even got there. That issue is that Maddie calls EVERY animal she sees a "dog-ga". I was just waiting for the looks from the other zoo visitors as my daughter called EVERY animal a "dog-ga". She did pretty well though. I would say that only 80% of the animals were a "dog-ga" . I took some pictures of the "dog-ga" as labeled by Maddie.

(I think in this picture she convinced Ruthie that it really was a "dog-ga" because they were both calling it a "dog-ga" even though it clearly is a bird).

Ok, so the Alpaca you cant really blame her for. It is a big furry animal that walks on all fours. It very well could be a "dog-ga".

Overall a good trip! I think we will be going back to visit very soon!