At the Zoo! {My hold it?}

While in Florida we took a trip over to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo. I had read that it was named the best zoo in the U.S. by Parents magazine, so I knew we needed to check it out. We had planned all along to go on Saturday and it turned out to be the most beautiful day of our trip. We couldn't have picked better weather for a trip to the zoo!The exhibits were great! They had lots of different monkeys! Swingin' monkeys...Baboony monkey...

Lion monkeys...

Titi monkeys... {Seriously! That's what they were called. And look how these two are lovin' up on each other. Get a room!}

But this was the cutest monkey of all... Our little boy is growing up so fast! Already 'tall enough' for rides!!

They had a great penguin exhibit -- even in hot, sunny Florida. Apparently, these are the only warm weather penguins. This one was so cute waddling over to take a swim...
I don't know what it was, but they apparently thought we were going to feed them, b/c when we knelt down to look at them, they all swam right over to us!

This llama was out taking a stroll. She didn't seem to be mad at her mama at all!

Giraffes and zebras are so cool!

Jackson got to give this one a cracker!

He was a little unsure, but the giraffe was quick! He wanted that cracker!

Jackson saw this camel and said, "A one hump camel makes a one hump poop. Only kidding!" That is actually a line from a book that my cousin, Andi, gave him called Everyone Poops.

The rhinocerous was one of his favorites!

This little zebra was only 4 days old. It's kind of hard to see him in the picture, but he laying down there by him Mommy.

Jackson saw the hippo wiggle his ears, so he was trying to wiggle his, too! Cute, huh? Jackson saw this train and just had to go for a ride! He loved it!

My favorite part of the whole day was when Jackson saw this emu. He said, "Hi Emu. My name's Jackson!"

That's not a dog, it's a dingo!

Jackson saw this roller coaster and wanted to ride soooo bad! We were a little unsure of what he would think, so we let him watch for a few minutes and he was all about it! We figured there was only one way to find out what he would think, so Sean got on with him. And he LOVED it! He was grinning the whole time!

The kids two cars back was not happy though! He screamed in terror the whole time! It was actually kinda funny b/c he wasn't all that little.

We only made it to one show, The Birds of Prey. Jackson really likes birds, so it was cool to see them up close like this!

Check out this owl flying through the air! That's our stroller there that he was perched next to!

Oh, look! There's a whole family of monkeys!!!

Another little baby animal!

And a really nappy looking sloth bear. He even had dingleberries stuck in his fur! Gross!!

A really pretty bird.

This one hopped onto Sean's hand for a snack!

Jackson thought that was really cool! Especially since every (EVERY!) time we saw a new animal, this was the conversation...

Us: 'Look Jackson, a {insert animal here}!'

Jackson: 'My hold it?'

Us: 'No, Jackson. I don't think you want to hold the {insert animal here}.'

Jackson: 'Why?'

Everything from the monkeys to the alligators, this was the conversation. Even the skunk. The answer to why was pretty easy to explain with this one! Peew!

These flamingos must have a good supply of shrimp to eat! Look at how pink they are!

This panther was one of the most interesting animals we saw. She was making all kinds of moaning sounds. Jackson even thought she had a belly ache. But apparently, the sounds she was making to alert the male of her sexual readiness. Sadly though, she was all alone! Someone help the poor girl out!!

Seriously, Jackson really said he wanted to hold these guys!

At the end of the day, we had two tokens left, so we asked Jackson what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to ride the train again. And he said, 'I wanna be driver!' No problem, right? So we got in line, and waited until we could be FIRST to get on. Well, when the 'attendent' opened the gate, the kids behind us just ran right past and hopped onto the first car. Jackson didn't get upset, but I could see he was disappointed. So after a bit of an argument between me and the 'attendent' we waited again. And the next time, I was like a mad woman charging to that first car! My kid's only two, so I felt I had to stand up for him!! Well, while I was busy getting Jackson settled in as driver, the 'attendent' was collecting tokens. I don't know if she was conceding the argument or if she really was just a terrible 'attendent', but she didn't get any tokens from us and I certainly didn't offer them up.

So after the train ride, Jackson got to take one last ride on the carousel with Nana!