The NC Zoo

We had planned on going to the Zoo with James this fall, and this weekend was perfect. The weather was amazing. We had been talking to James all week about the animals we would see in the Africa part of the zoo. We have wall stickers on his bathroom walls of an elephant, lion, zebra, giraffe, and monkey. We had talked about sounds they all make. He was roaring like a lion on the way to the zoo. I still wasn't sure how much he would enjoy it, but knew Yancey and I were looking forward to the trip. When we got there, we ran into some of our dear friends, Todd and Kristie. They were there with their niece and nephew. The highlight of the trip for all of us was the giraffes. They were the first animals that we saw and they were so close! I had never seen them in person. They are so pretty. James was pointing at them, so I know he was aware of what we were seeing. Later on that morning, we got to go on a higher "bridge" that allowed you to get really close and eye level with them. When we got up there, James said "whoa". He really enjoyed being so close. We had talked a lot about lions, but the only lion we saw was asleep. Tonight when James and I were talking about the animals in his bathroom again, I said "where is the lion?". He pointed to the lion and put his finger to his mouth doing the "shhh" motion. I said, "is the lion still asleep". He nodded! We saw wart hogs (didn't care much for them) and lemurs. We got to see elephants and chimps. He really liked watching the chimps eat their snacks. We saw flamingos and some tropical birds (which he waved bye-bye too). We also paid a little extra and got some tickets for James to ride the carousel. I didn't know if he would like it or not, but he did. He pointed to the giraffe the first time, and thankfully Yancey was able to get him on it before anyone else got there! It was such a perfect day in so many ways! Hopefully, before too long we can go back and check out the North America side.