Boys First Trip to the Zoo

I wanted to do this post separate from the weekend recap because there's so many pictures and I wanted it easy to find later when I'm looking back on old blog posts. We took the boys to the Reston Zoo on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. It was more of a HUGE petting zoo than a traditional zoo. It's owned by the same people who own the Virginia Safari Park, which we also wan to take the boys too when they're older. This zoo was so much better for the boys at this age than a traditional zoo. It was very hands on, and they were able to run around and really enjoy themselves. It was a little less than a 2 hour drive up there. We left about 8:30 and got there a little after 10:00. The boys usually do great in the car in the mornings, which was the case on Sunday--thankfully. We left around lunch time which is also their nap time so they could sleep on the way home. That didn't go as planned--Evan took a pretty good nap, but Carter's was super short. They were both really good while they were awake on the way back, though, It was a very fun trip, successful car ride, etc. I'm so glad we went.

This was the first animal we saw when we got there.

Then, we went through the barn and the boys fed the goats, lambs, etc. They also gave a baby lamb a bottle. It was impossible to get pictures of the boys looking at me. There was just too much fun stuff for them to bother with the camera.

Daddy and the boys feeding the animals.

You can kinda see in this picture how the allergies have affected Carter's eyes. They're red, puffy, itchy. It's so sad. They are just as bad inside as they are outside, so we're not keeping him cooped up, we're letting him still be a kid. We gave him benadryl before going, and afterwards, we wiped both boys down with baby wipes and changed them into clean clothes before driving home.

Evan looking at the ducks. The cage in this picture had monkeys in it. The boys weren't very interested in anything in a cage, which makes me glad that we chose this zoo over a more traditional one.

The boys LOVED feeding the ducks. The ducks do not play around though. They will stick their beaks through the fence and grab the food out of your hands. It didn't phase the boys in the least, they thought it was funny.

Llamas that came up to you and you could feed them. Carter actually crawled under this fence and got in there, but Greg got him before he even got on his feet. haha, never a dull moment.

There is an area where you can go in with bird seed on a stick and the birds will land on you and eat the bird feed. I was pretty sure that the boys would do fine, but heard lots of shrieks, so I started to get a little nervous. But, the boys did great. They had NO fear. This was my favorite part of the zoo. (you can still see Evan's poor nose where he got hit with the book)

This is blurry and not a good picture, but I wanted to post one to show how brave Carter was with the birds. He just reached over and pet them (he did try and pick them up, so we had to watch him) He wasn't scared at all.

Greg feeding the birds.

Evan squating down with the birds.

I'm so glad the boys aren't scared of the animals. It'd probably be good if they had a little fear, but if I had to choose being terrified of animals or having no fear, I'd rather them have no fear.

This was how it was a lot of the time. It was so open, we just let the boys roam around and we followed them. I think they loved not being cooped up in the stroller and getting to explore. It was the perfect activity for them.

They had a tractor pulled ride through a field where animals like camels, llamas, etc came up to you, but the boys were exhausted and we would have had to wait 45 minutes for the next ride, so we skipped it this time.

I'm so glad we went to this. We all really enjoyed it. It's so nice to do something different on the weekends. The boys love to run around and just be boys, so I love that the weather is getting warmer and we're able to do outdoor things like this. I have a few more things that other moms have suggested that I want to try out before it gets too hot. Although, this wasn't a traditional zoo, it is called the Reston Zoo, and they had monkeys, llamas, camels, etc. So, I'm counting this as their first trip to the zoo and I'm also marking off #16 on my 30 Before 30 list. ;)