Fun at the Tucson Zoo

On Tuesday I took Anslie to the Zoo. We met with our new friends, Jessica and her daughter Tristan, and Melissa and Juan and their son Alvaro. Jessica's husband, Matt, went through the academy with Kevin and we met Juan and Melissa last summer when Juan and Kevin were teaching in Roswell.

We had SO much fun! Anslie and I started our visit off with a special little activity for pre-schoolers. We met with our zoo keepers and they took us to a special classroom where we listened to all kinds of animal sounds and tried to guess what animals they were. Then we colored pictures of Macaws and glued feathers and eyes on. Anslie had a blast using the glue stick and coloring is one of her favorite activities. Story time was then followed by a show and touch series where the zoo keepers brought out a guinea pig, a hedge hog, and a chicken for the kids to touch. Anslie loved seeing the animals but did NOT want to pet them. The final activity was a parade to the aviary where the keepers threw bird seed and live crickets out for the birds to eat while the kiddos watched. It was great fun!

After our activity, we met up with the others at the giraffes for our giraffe encounter. We got to feed them biscuits and lettuce and Anslie thought that was something special. She liked touching the giraffe's tongue and thought it was funny once she finally let go of the bicuits.

We walked around the zoo to see all of the animals of course, but the crowning moment was when Jessica and I took Tristan and Anslie to the water area and let them play (for Anslie and I, a couple of hours). I don't think I have seen Anslie have that much fun in a long time! And the best part was that no one got sunburned!!! Yay!

Anslie and I shared an ice cream cone and some rock candy as we walked back to the giraffes to say goodbye for the day. I bought her a little stuffed giraffe to remind her of our special zoo day and then we headed home. It was truly one of the most fun days Anslie and I have spent together!