Memphis Zoo

Josh had to work in Memphis on Monday and Tuesday, so we took the kids a day early and went to the Memphis Zoo on Sunday.  We had never been before, but had heard really good things about it.  We were not at ALL disappointed!  It was the best zoo!  We did the New Orleans Zoo last summer and were really impressed.  But I think this one is my new favorite!  The kids had a BALL!

Of course, V. immediately found some flowers and snagged one!

Checking out their penguins...

Getting eye-level with the prairie dogs...

They had a petting zoo area with different farm animals...

Waiting for the sea lion show to begin...  This was really neat!

They had polar bears, grizzly bears, and panda bears!  So impressive!  All three exhibits were so good, too!

Elephants exhibit...

We LOVED the pandas!  A tradition we have in our family is to collect a Christmas ornament from each place we travel to.  Every year when we decorate our tree, it's fun to remember all the places we have been as we unpack the ornaments to decorate with!  We chose a panda ornament from our trip!

I read a book this summer called The One and Only Ivan.  Made me cry!  It's a book I am going to be using in my classroom with my kiddos this year.  So seeing that they had a silverback gorilla was really cool to me!  :)

ICEE break!

Followed by a playground break!  Of COURSE!

They even had komodo dragons!

Me and my fear of lizards...  that was the FREAKIEST lizard I have ever seen!!!!

The China pavilion/exhibit was so neat!

They had scheduled times for feeding/seeing animals all over the zoo.  You could ride camels, feed/pet stingrays, feed giraffes, etc.  We missed the giraffe feeding...hopefully we can do it next time.

Vera has an obsession with zebras...  She met a mascot zebra named Zoe at the Jackson Zoo and ever since, she calls every zebra she sees "Zoe Zebra."  Here she is calling out to Zoe!  ha.

WHOA!  They even had a "Mufasa" lion!  Grady was excited!

We stayed until closing time.  We were one of the last cars in the lot!

Such a fun day!  We will DEFINITELY do this again soon!