A Great Surprise

On Saturday, Emma and I got ready and we headed out.  She kept asking where we were going, but all I would tell her was that it was a surprise.  A little before 11:00 we pulled into the parking lot.  Emma said, "Is this where we are going, Mommy?"  I replied, "Yes, we're here."  She said, "Is this the petting zoo?"  I was so shocked that she remembered that this was the zoo because I haven't taken her in probably a year.  How do kids have such a great memory?!

She was so excited to go see all of the animals and I was happy to have some one on one time with my girl.  She requested to start with the elephants, so that's what we did.  Here is one of the four elephants they have in the exhibit.

Here is the little elephant who is six years old which is the son of the elephant above. 

Emma was very thrilled that the rhinos came right up the gate to greet her.

In the play area they had drums which she played and played.  She was so intent on making her music that I couldn't even get her to look at the camera.

This is as close as she got to actually climbing on the rock playground.

She was much more comfortable in the cave where she could keep both feet on the ground.

How cute is that face?

Looking at the tortoises. 

While we were waiting to ride the train, we made a few friends and they took our picture.

Finally on the train! 

Watching the sea lion show.

The butterflies!  I think out of everything we saw, this was one of her favorites.  She is fascinated by them and she loved that there were at least a hundred different butterflies flying around her.

Emma walking through the butterfly garden.

And last, but certainly not least, we rode the Merry-Go-Round.  She named her elephant Ellie the Elephant and gave it a hug once we got off.

We finally headed back home a little after 3:30.  Can you believe we stayed for over 4.5 hours at the zoo?  I figured a meltdown would've occurred, but she was so good the whole time.  Thankfully it was overcast on Saturday or we would've never made it through the heat.  It even sprinkled a couple of times but it didn't even phase her.  Her only concern was which animal we were going to see next. 

Emma has been having trouble going to sleep at night the past several weeks.  What used to be an 8:30 bedtime now leads to her not falling asleep until 10:30.  On Friday night, she didn't go to sleep until nearly 11:00, so she didn't wake up until 9:00 on Saturday morning.  Therefore, one of my goals on Saturday was to wear her out.  I even decided to let her skip her nap in the hopes of her heading to bed at a decent time.

It worked - but I also wore myself out in the process!  We were drying her sheets and, as always, we didn't account for the time very well.  So while they were finishing up, we let Emma crawl in our bed to start winding down.  Before Josh knew it, she and I were both asleep and he couldn't help but snap this picture.  It captures the perfect end to our day! 

We had a great day.  As we were leaving the zoo, she said, "Mommy, this was such a great surprise for me today.  I hope we can come back tomorrow."