The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Waaaaaaay back in July, the kids and I took a little trip to Cleveland with the fam.

We we were there, we decided to take a field trip to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo with Grammy, Aunt Sue, Uncle Bill, Aunt Betsy, Jenny, and Caroline.

My mom has tons of pictures of me when I was Gracie's age visiting this same zoo. 

While it has changed quite a bit over the last 25 years, it was so much fun to take my little ones to the same place where some of my childhood memories were made.

Mom and Aunt Sue were kind enough to man the strollers.

One think that amazes me about this zoo is how close you can get to the animals. 

I didn't even have to zoom in!

There was a HUGE giraffe exhibit that you could visit from all sides.  Very neat. 

 I'm not sure what we were checking out right here (sea lions, perhaps?), but we certainly were excited...

Gracie stayed in her stroller for about 2.7 seconds before ditching it for the freedom of wide-open spaces to run...

We got to feed the Lorikeets...

{This picture was taken seconds before the bird bit G's little hand. 

The shock of it, of course, caused her to toss her cup of nectar into the air.

My shirt caught it.

We won't mention that we bought her another cup which also ended up being caught by my shirt.

Another one of those "mom" moments...}

 Gracie looked forward to riding a pony all day long.

This zoo did not have a pony, but it DID have a camel!

She LOVED it!!

The koala had just given birth to a little joey.

It was so cute and tiny...

We stopped for a quick snack of "elephant juice" and popsicles...

 I can't get over how much Jack has grown since then.

He was loving the popsicle too...

The last place we visited was the rain forest which houses the oranguatuans.

There was the cutest little one who was trying to play with Gracie through the glass.

It was using a feedbag to play peek-a-boo :o)

While they were playing, this giant ape came right up to the glass and sat directly in front of G. 

It was so funny!



We had an absolute blast at the zoo, and the kids were asleep before we even hit the interstate.

After several fun trips to various zoos this summer, we will definitely be getting a season pass for next year.

Can't wait!