Just Another Day at the Zoo. Or Was It?

I won't bore you with another post about us going to the zoo. We are very fortunate to have a zoo so close to us that we can go anytime we want. And we do go a lot. Gavin loves it and the weather has been really nice these past few days so I promised him a trip. But I will tell you about the few, lets say interesting, things that happened to us while we were there. 

As I said before, Gavin is all about some turtles. The OKC Zoo has some HUGE Galapagos tortoises. They are great for the kids because they are really easy for them to see because of their size and the fact that they tend to move around a lot. Well, for a turtle. So anyways, we get up to the entrance of their exhibit and Gavin wanted to play on the statue. 

So I take a few pics of him and explain that we get to see the real thing if he would please GET OFF the fake turtle and stop pretending he is riding it off into the sunset while waving bye to me. Finally we get inside and I hear some crazy noise coming from their enclosure. Like a water buffalo choking on a carrot. I have no idea what that sounds like but I had never heard this before either. We walk up and this is what we see...

                                 Yes, I took a picture of this. I knew I had to show you. 

And that noise I was hearing was coming from the boy turtle. It was a very loud and deep grunt. I couldn't figure out if he was happy or angry. The whole time he was, um, up there, she was walking around and zigzagging and well, just not being very cooperative. Then my son looks at me and says, "Why is he mooing?" And he's literally staring at me, waiting for an answer. And I've got nothing. "Well, um. They probably. Sometimes they. They just do that sometimes. Now lets get out of here." So he waves and yells goodbye to the turtles but I don't they were listening or cared. 

So off we go to the other exhibits and they weren't nearly as comical but Gavin loved them anyways. 

A little too close to the grizzlies for my taste. 

I think this little guy liked Gavin. 

We found Nemo. Again. It's become a game at this point. 

So we are on the way to the elephant exhibit when all of a sudden... CRASH! A wheel comes off the trike. Just goes rolling down the pathway while Gavin and all of our belongings are spilled everywhere. I go fetch the wheel and start trying to reassemble the trike. And by reassemble I mean I just put the wheel back on its base and pounded it with my shoe until I thought it was a good enough number of whacks to make it stick. Well, it wasn't. We went a few rolls further and not only did the wheel go flying off, but the entire wheel shaft came off the trike. Just completely fell apart like Dollar Store brand Legos. 

Well this is just so absolutely fantastic. I am probably the furthest point I could possibly be from the entrance of the zoo. I have to carry this trike and all of it pieces ALL the way back through the zoo, the entire time begging Gavin to PLEASE keep up! We get not even half way there and Gavin decides he can't walk anymore. Like its just too much for him to walk, while not carrying a single thing. So I grab him and all that's left of our Radio Flyer and secretly curse every single person I hear talking amongst themselves: "On no, her stroller broke." "Oh, poor girl!" "Aw, she's having to carry him." Thanks, people!!!! I love having poorly veiled commentary about the pain I myself am currently experiencing!!!! I would have never been able to figure out what I was doing or why I was doing it without your pointing and whispering!!!! And don't you dare offer to help me!!! Gavin finally did get down and helped me carry a wheel, so I didn't actually die of a stroke like I envisioned. We finally got to the car and I threw the sad remains in the back. I grabbed the umbrella stroller and I'm happy to report that its performance the rest of the zoo trip was satisfactory. I'm sure when Chad gets home he will take one look at it and go "All you had to do was put this here, turn that there and pop that back in." Like the sunglasses I had that had a lens fall out. I spent literally 20 minutes a day, for two weeks trying to get that stupid thing back in. Finally when we get home from Florida, I ask him to see if he can do it. He's sitting on the couch watching tv and just ever so slightly and gently pops it right in. Like he just signed his name or something. I don't even think he looked down at them. 

But whatever, we made it. Besides the trike incident and the turtle sex, it was fun. We ended the day with a movie, some popcorn and milk from our new, cool zoo cup. Chad is out of town this week/weekend. He went to Austin so I loaded him down with a long list of things I needed (wanted) from Ikea. Man I love that store. It's probably a good thing there isn't one closer. He gets home Saturday and then we are heading to Kansas on Sunday. Always on the go!