LA Zoo

Preston and Lillian checking out the Meerkats
























This last Weds. we took grandma with us to go to the Los Angeles Zoo!! Lillian loves animals and is always excited when we tell her we are going to any zoo. This time was no different. She was so excited. Long car trips make her fall asleep, and this was a long car trip. It took us and hour and fifteen minutes to get there, (dumb 5 frwy)!! She had a nice little 45 minute nap, just enough to take the edge off and give her energy for our adventure! It was already starting to get warm when we got there too. So we quickly loaded up the double stroller after I fed Preston and we were off.
Since my mom and I have a Santa Ana Zoo membership we were able to get into this zoo for 50% off. Sweet!!! Free parking, $10.50 total for Lillian's and my ticket, talk about a great deal!!
We decided to have lunch first since it was getting to be lunch time anyway. We had a very nice little picnic lunch on the tables inside the zoo. We were even able to watch the Sea Lions swimming around in their pool. Lilian loved that!!
We then headed up to see the rest of the zoo. We saw Alligators, and Meerkats, Flamingos, Black-necked Swans, Tigers and Lions, Monkeys and so much more. I took pictures of some of the animals that we could actually see (as opposed to their hind ends) and the ones Lillian really seemed to like. We had a wonderful time even though it was so hot!! I think I was sweating the whole time, LOL!! Thankfully we had plenty of water and we all stayed well hydrated. Even Preston drank around 25 ounces plus whatever I fed him at the park and just before we left. So we had many diaper and pull-up changes and bathroom breaks. The zoo also had this high powered fan that sprayed water out. Great idea!! Lillian loved it and it was a great way to cool everyone off. They also had heavy misters that we stood under to cool ourselves off.
Lillian actually walked, or should I say jogged/skipped most of the time. We would go from one exhibit to another with her running to get to the next one. She totally wore herself out. She finally started getting really tired around the gorilla so we asked if she wanted to sit in the stroller and she did. Of course, the part where mommy has to now push 2 kids up steep hills to get to the rest of the animals at the top of the zoo. Yes the zoo is set on the side of a mountain, so there are lots of steep hills you climb! I,of course, got a great quad workout that day! Lillian loved seeing the Tigers, Lions and the white Leopard. We stood watching each of them for probably 10-15 minutes. The Ostrich was pretty cool too, even if it was all the way in the back of it's pen. We saw this huge, and I mean huge, Tortoise. I am not sure if I have ever seen one that big. Lillian thought he was pretty cool. Unfortunately, he was one of the animals that felt like only showing off his back end, so no picture (Sorry I don't take pictures of animal butts) LOL!! I wish we could have had another hour or more to look around, but it was getting late and the park would be closing soon, so we didn't get to see everything. But we saw almost everything. We went down to the gift shops and Lillian got some of her energy back!! I think she thought she was in heaven with all those stuffed animals. She would run over to one, pick it up and say "I want this one." Ha Ha Ha!! I told her she could pick ONE!! That turned out to be a little difficult, but we eventually settled on a Tiger! Plus mommy found this GREAT pop-out book with an animal for every letter of the alphabet, and these little finger ring animals. She loves them and plays with the constantly!
Our trip home wasn't too bad, it tooks about an hour to get back to my parents place and Lillian and Preston had a nice nap. Preston actually had a couple of nice naps while at the zoo. We had dinner with my parents and then mommy and Lillian went for a bike ride on my new bike. I love it and so does Lillian. We had an exciting, fun-filled day with lots of good memories!!
Enjoy the pictures!!