My little ANIMAL!

Bridget and I had a great time meeting our friends, Ashlee and Catherine, at the Fort Worth Zoo last week. It was part of birthday week for me, which I’ll just say was awesome. I didn’t do much outside of things I really wanted to do (perfect!). I got to rest and recoup after the 3-Day and spend a lot of quality time with my noodle doodle. She slept in til after 8:30 on my birthday! Love her!

Back to the zoo: we took B to the Dallas Zoo this time last year and she loved it (she was an itty bitty, but her love for animals was already apparent). She also was thrilled by the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado this summer, even though we weathered a rain storm during our trip. I couldn’t wait to take her to Fort Worth, ‘cause I think its definitely the best one in the area. It didn’t disappoint!

The girls are ready to go!:

Our first animal of the day was the amazing Black Rhino. Seriously, he looked like a machine out of a Spielberg movie. I was thrilled when he decided to go for a morning swim! Don’t you always hope the animals will swim in their pools while you’re there??:

We did a lot of tipping of strollers and pointing out animals below:

Mommy’s favorite when she was a girl…the white tiger:

Bridgey loves to say “roar!” these days, so we did a lot of that in the Tiger Sanctuary:

They have an amazing area called Parrot Paradise. It’s a covered/closed atrium filled with hundreds of parakeets, small parrots, and similar birds that just fly freely around. Bridget is fascinated by birds, so it was a MUST SEE:

She was totally uninterested in looking at the camera for a pic with Mommy:

There were wiry trees all around that were covered with these brightly colored friends of a feather. Just beautiful!:

Germaphobes just have to remember: would the zoo allow such a place if its wasn’t safe for kids??

Ashlee freely admitted a slight fear of birds but braved the Parrot Paradise for Catherine. What a selfless mom, right?! As soon as we left, she called her husband with a pic of her inside the place for proof. So funny!:

Bridget showing Ashlee and Catherine the birds. She’s such a great guide :).

Ashlee watched B for me while I went to buy a “seed stick” to feed the birds (only a $1 and was totally worth it!). As soon as I walked back in the area I was dive-bombed! It was insane!:

Bridget was so interested in the birds that I thought she might want to hold the stick with a bird on it…alas, the flapping feathers directly in front of her face was a little too much:

It was almost too much for me! That’s real fear in that face, people:

We tried…:

How they keep people from stepping on the birds, I’ll never know:

After the birds, we visited the MOLA (Museum of Living Art) and saw many slithery snakes and fantastical fish:

Bridget’s image in the glass:

Catherine through the glass, checking out some cool turtles:

This Indian Crocodile was totally suspended in the water like he was frozen. It was totally creepy but we couldn’t take our eyes off him!:

We really enjoyed seeing all the monkeys. It was a beautiful day, so they were all in their outside areas swinging, playing, and just having a great time. Thanks, guys, for entertaining us!:

And of course, we loved seeing the baby chimp. He couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old!:

Such a great time with good friends. We can’t wait play again, soon!

We stayed through lunchtime, so I was concerned that B would be starving on the ride home. I started giving her a bites of a cereal bar as we left the parking lot, but as you can see, the feel asleep mid-bite. Such a sweet little monkey!:

Stay tuned for a review of our first trip to California!