Fernandez Family of Five: A Surprise Trip to the NC Zoo....

Yesterday, we decided to take the kids somewhere really fun. We have been wanting to take them to the NC Zoo for some time now and decided we should do it before it gets too hot. We also thought it would be fun not to tell them where we were going. Regan is like her mommy and can't stand surprises so she was begging us to tell her the whole way. We started playing the guessing game on where we were going. Regan guessed a park, Reece guessed a playground, and our creative Riley guessed the "Statue of Liberty." :) Then, Daddy started throwing out ideas (trying to give them hints) but they never caught on. He told them we were going to see "Tiger Woods play golf" and they all screamed, "No Daddy!" and then he would say, "You don't want to go see Tiger?" Then, he said we were going to meet a famous football coach, "Bear Bryant" and they all screamed, "No Daddy!" (yes, we know he is long gone but they don't) and he said, "You don't want to go see Bear?" Then he said, "we are going to see a Navy Seals Museum" and the girls screamed again, "No Daddy!" and he said, "you don't want to see some Seals?" Then, I chimed in and said "we are going to Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant" (one of my favorites so they started to believe me) but they still said, "No Mommy!" I said "you don't want to see Buffaloes?" This continued with several other examples. They NEVER got it. So, finally when we were a few miles away from the Zoo (and Regan had missed a lot of signs b/c she was reading in the back seat) Tony asked Regan what all of the examples we gave had in common. He repeated the places/people and Regan finally realized they were all animals. And finally she guessed the Zoo. She tried to bluff and screamed "I don't want to go to the Zoo!" We said, "tough we are almost there!" :) Luckily, she was just playing with us. When we arrived, we realized everyone in NC had the same idea. It was PACKED!!!! We had to park in overflow parking. Never have we seen the Zoo so crowded. I guess going on a holiday weekend is not smart. We were hoping everyone would be at the beach. :) Eventhough the zoo was crowded, we still had a great time. The Zoo is so spread out you could not really tell how many people were there. And the weather was nice - not too hot and even a little cloudy. We got a few sprinkles during lunch which cooled us off and scared some of the people away. ;) It was a great day. We were there for 5 hrs. and the girls were troopers. They started to get tired toward the end but nothing a little cotton candy can't handle. Boy did that perk them up. Many of you know how our girls are with sugar!!! ;) We asked the girls what they liked best and Regan said "the Lions, the poison dart frogs, and the seals" Riley said, "the Elephants, the baboons fighting (some did get in a fight) and seals" and Reece said, "the seals, the baboon licking a stick and the baboons climbing on each others backs (she thought they were giving each other piggy back rides - we left it at that!) ;0

The beautiful Lion. We took this photo for Regan since her school mascot is the Lion. And because everytime we have gone to the NC zoo we never get to see the Lions up close because they are always sleeping or hiding. So, this was a first.

The girls playing in a helicopter.

Riley flying the helicopter - going to look for some elephants.

This baboon was licking a stick. The girls thought this was so funny. Reece said, "he looks like he is licking a lollipop." Then Riley said, "No, it must be a popsicle since it is hot. A lollipop won't cool him off but a popsicle will." :)

Beautiful Flamingos - Regan educated me on the Flamingos - She told me they are born either white or grey and do not turn pink until later. I asked "what makes them pink?" She said "the kind of food they eat turns them pink." I did not know this!!! What I did not learn in Kindergarten, I learn from my second grader! I am definitely not smarter than a 2nd grader (well 3rd grader now)!