First Trip to the Zoo

I have been wanting to take Preston to the zoo all spring long but for one reason or another it kept falling through. At first I wanted to take him to the Fort Worth Zoo but then I heard the Dallas Zoo had been redone and was pretty nice. This past weekend, my parents spent the night and on Sunday morning my mom suggested that we go to the Zoo because it was suppose to be nice (a little warm) but not too bad and Brent didn't have to work. It sounded like a win-win to me. We quickly packed a few things and off we went. Preston got to ride in his new car seat facing forward the whole time on the way to the zoo and he loved that.
When we first got there, we took our picture in front of the Dallas Zoo sign to capture Preston's first time at the zoo then we headed to the Children's Zoo area.

I saw that they allowed kids over the age of 1 to ride the pony ride and I was so excited to let Preston ride. I knew we had a 50/50 change of him loving it or hating it and luckily he absolutely love it. He held on like a pro and didn't want to get off when the ride was over. I hope to get him in horseback riding classes one day!!

Pony Ride

 Petting the pony

 All done!!

Also in that area were a few sheep you could pet and a tunnel you could crawl through. Of course we had to let Preston crawl through the burrow tunnel!! Just outside that area is a bird cage area where they let you feed the birds and get up close and personal with them. Before I knew it I had a bird on my head, one on my shoulder and one on my arm. It was actually a really cool experience although I did get pooped on. Just a little on my hand.

Attempting to pet the sheep

 Burrow Tunnel

 Birds all over...on my head, shoulder and arm. I wasn't prepared for all 3 at once

 I can handle the one just fine

We made our way around the park and saw monkeys, reptiles, tiger, flamingos and birds all while on the hunt to find the turtle statue that Jerod took his picture on the first time he ever went to the Dallas Zoo. Just as we were entering the reptile building my mom said look there it is, the turtle. We got so excited because we wanted to recreate the same picture they took with Jerod on the turtle with Paw Paw and Bub but this time with Preston and Brent. It was a special moment, especially since Preston actually smiled for the camera

YAY!!! We found the turtle

 Funny thing is my dad is wearing the exact same outfit as he did when he took this picture with Jerod and Bub with Jerod was 2 years old, just a different hat

After seeing all the reptiles as we made our way to the Safari side, mom took Preston on the train ride and she said he loved it. He just sat with her and looked all around.

Train ride with Mal

Before we finished the last half of the zoo, we grabbed a drink and a snack and then headed to the Safari area. I was excited for Preston to feed the giraffes but when we got to that section, we found out it was a pretty popular attraction. So we just looked and let Preston get as close to the giraffes as we could get him. Then we made our way through the Gorilla Trail and then finished our trip at the gift shop. We got Preston the cutest little stuffed turtle and "My First Trip to the Zoo" shirt.

Feeding the giraffes

 Put your hand in his mouth Preston, we dare you