Good Friday at the Zoo

 On Good Friday Lilli and I met some friends at the zoo.  The unfortunate thing about that was that most of Nashville was also off that day (with the exception of Brent and Tim, Wendy's husband) and had the same plan.  We got there about 9:30, 30 minutes after the zoo opened, and the line stretched way into the parking lot.  We braved the line and it actually thinned out significantly inside the zoo and the kids had plenty of space to see the animals and run around.  Here they are at the meerkats - Lilli on the left, Zach in the middle and Audrey on the right.  From behind, Lilli and Audrey have very similar hair!

In the petting zoo giving the goat some attention.

Looking for some alligators! I can't believe Audrey is taller than Lilli - she's about ten months younger!

I know this picture is totally blown out, but Lilli and Zach had the strangest conversation while they were looking at the zebras.  There was also an ostrich in there and some antelope.  When Lilli saw the antelope she got SO excited and said "Zach, there's a DINOSAUR out there!" Of course he was excited to and said "Where!!??" and she kept pointing to the antelope, telling him to look behind the ostrich and poor Zach kept getting so frustrated and telling her he couldn't see it.  He finally said "Lilli, can you carry me out there and show me the dinosaur?" Of course she laughed and said she couldn't carry him and their dinosaur convo was over.










 Pulling Zach along in the wagon.  Now that's service!









By this point it was nearly noon and we were all getting hungry.  We grabbed some food from the snack bar but the zoo was SO crowded we could only eat on a grassy hill nearby.  The kids loved it and chased each other all around while we sat and visited.   There was a constant line of people coming in and out of the zoo, and by this point when Wendy took Zach to the bathroom there was about a 10 minute wait.  She ran into someone she knew and they said there was still a line that stretched into the parking lot to get into the zoo!

Lunch of champions!!! Lilli wanted cotton candy and they wanted popcorn, so they all shared and were very happy!















After they got to play for a long time we went to see one last animal, the elephants, and oh my goodness - it was so crowded it was 100% miserable.  Thankfully between the wagon and stroller all three of them had somewhere to ride because literally it was so crowded one of them could have easily gotten lost very quickly.  Once we saw the elephants we high tailed it out of there and couldn't believe the parking lot.  All the parking lots were filled, and then cars were parallel parked all the way to Nolensville Road - and it's a very, very long drive into the zoo.  Police were directing traffic into the zoo and Nolensville Road was backed up about a half a mile of people wanting to get in.  INSANE.  I would've never stayed if I saw that when we were coming in! I think Good Friday 2013 will be the park and she'll be every bit as happy!

A

 And not surprisingly - this was what was in the backseat when we got home!

I have no clue why Blogger suddenly and abruptly changed my format but I really don't like this!