This weekend My wife and I took my daughters to the local zoo. It is a small zoo in Santa Ana but we have a membership for the year so it is free and is a nice place to spend some time. They don't have the big name animals which is why none of my photos have lions or elephants or any real animals. You will see the focus is letting my three year old have fun.
Our day got off to a rough start as we walked in and a private party was going on in the party area with two bounce houses. My daughter didn't understand at all why we couldn't just run into that party and go in the bounce house. But for sure young kids don't stay down for long as we made our way to the reptile shack they have to see the big snakes and cool down as it has AC she went right to a little corner to make "Juice" for the crocodile. I found out she started this on the last trip that I didn't go as I let Grandma go in my place.
This was a lot of fun she must of pretend to fill that can ten times or more and was having a conversation with the crocodile each time she gave him a drink. A few passer buys thought it was cute and her little sister had a good time watching as well.
After this we went outside to her next favorite thing. The broken down jeep. I can't tell you how funny that is to me as the thing is really beat up but she loves to sit in it with one of us and pretend to drive. We have had to wait a long time for her turn in the past and rush off it as lots of kids like to sit here. But today it was empty and she got to relax and mess around till she was ready to move on it was nice.
Next we start to go on the walk through the bird sanctuary. It is pretty funny there are almost no birds in it. Just a few that don't really fly and sit up high but it is nice area to walk in with a lot of trees and water and just a relaxing place. I do enjoy this part of the zoo.
In this same area near the end they do have a pool full of little fish and tadpoles that my daughter loves. We always spend a while just looking down at it making sure she doesn't jump in. My phone doesn't really show the little fish but they are down there.
After we leave this area it is a nice little walk through the monkey's and a few camels and the ocelot cats. The ocelot is the biggest cat they have and is pretty cool but by the time we made it here it was pretty hot and they were hiding inside. In the future maybe I will get more shots of the animals but wasn't really planning to do this post when I was taking pictures. The path then hooks around and we come back to the start of the park and then my daughter could tell the rides where open. So we headed over to carousel. This one is her favorite by far. It is fun cause unlike most carouses it is not all horse but a lot of zoo animals. Though today she rode the horse and then the giant panda.
She does love to take a selfie. After the first ride we also went to ride the train. It is a little train and lead to our second little fight of the day. As we got stopped right at the front of the line and had to stop and on get on the train. She had her ticket in hand and tried to give to the man but he had to say no and she was not happy. It took me a while to calm her down while we waiting for the Train to come back. I could tell she was tired also at this point but after we spotted a pony off in the distance she relaxed and waited.
I was happy that after getting on first right away she was able to stay happy and clam till we got to start the ride. It took a while as this is a small zoo and they wanted to fill a few more cars before going. It was a good 10 minutes sitting there talking about trains and pointing at the people buying tickets and telling her we have to wait for those kids to get on before we can go. I do love that she was like okay and when they came past us said hello to all of them. I am a bit bummed a few people don't notice kids when they talk. My daughter tries to talk to a lot of people and they don't notice and it bums me out. I am glad it doesn't get to her but a few times I call tell she is disappointed that someone didn't answer.
After this we went off to eat on packed lunch over by the playground they have inside. This is a nice add on sometimes we just come and let her play in the playground for a few hours. Today she only wanted to play for a little while before coming back and saying she was ready to go home. It was a good day. I hope for many more like it.
Take care everyone.