North Carolina Zoo

We had heard about the North Carolina Zoo, in Ashboro in that it was an awesome zoo to go to and we decided that we definitely needed to check it out while my parents were in town. We hadn't been to it because it is 1 1/2 hours away and when your children don't really like cars, that can seem like a long ways. Well, we bought a membership because it really was an awesome zoo that we plan on going back again and again to. They have it divided up into 2 sections: North American and Africa. The North American side has alligators, seals, sea lions, polar bears, brown bears, wolves, bison, and tons of snakes, etc, and the Africa side has the elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and things like that. It was really neat. The entire zoo is laid out in a huge line which winds around the different exhibits so that you really don't have to backtrack to see things that you missed. The whole thing is about 5 miles long, but they have a shuttle that picks you up in a few spots if you can't walk the whole thing, plus a shuttle that takes you from the North American entrance to the African entrance. That was really nice. We really enjoyed our day at the zoo, so I have a lot of pictures!

Peyton loves turtles and spent a long time watching them swim around.

This guy was a pretty active turtle.

Jackson enjoying some grandpa time.

Peyton checking out the mountain lion with Grandpa.



Taking a break

Peyton enjoyed his African safari.

I loved this picture my mom took. Peyton had never seen a Caterpillar before and he was entranced by it.

Peyton's favorite movie right now is Madagascar 1 and 2 and two of the main characters are a giraffe and a zebra. The giraffe is named Melman, and the Zebra is Marty. Peyton kept saying "Momma, look! There's Marty and melman! Where is Alex?" Alex is a lion and I told him that Alex wasn't able to come and play with Marty and Melman right now.

I loved how the animals had a real natural looking habitat to roam in. These zebras, giraffes, and ostriches had a lot of room to roam around in. Not very zoo-like.

Our little family.

Happy grandparents.

Peyton really like the chimpanzees until one totally freaked him and me out. There was a good sized chimp sitting close to a window (I wish I would have taken a picture of it). We Peyton was standing in front of the window on a ledge that was probably 18 inches off the ground. I was holding onto his hand, had Jackson asleep in my baby Bjorn on my chest, and was holding a bottle of water with my other hand and unscrewing the lid with my fingers, when all of a sudden the chimp lunged toward Peyton and smacked the glass really hard right where Peyton's head was. It scared me and Peyton both and he jumped back off the ledge. I still had his hand so he didn't fall, but I also couldn't slow down his fall to much because of Jackson and my water bottle, but luckily he didn't get hurt, Jackson didn't even wake up and I didn't spill my water. Unfortunately nobody even saw it happen, so when I went over to tell Craig and my heart was still racing and Peyton was all freaked out, Craig didn't know why. Hopefully Peyton isn't scared of Chimpanzees now. It was crazy.

Home, home on the range... I couldn't believe how much acreage these elephants, rhinos and hippos had. Crazy.

Hopefully the elephants at the Denver Zoo don't find out that there is life outside of cement enclosures! The only downside to this for us though was that we didn't get to see the animals close up. They were quite far away.

Where else can you see an excavator and bison at the same time? Peyton was in heaven!

SciWorks

We took my parents to our local science museum, Sciworks. Peyton loves going here. He gets to run around and stretch his legs without being told to stop running. He especially loves this piano.
He actually could jump all day long.

We even got my dad on the piano. It was funny.

Jackson enjoying his stroller ride as usual.

This is neat. A life size game of operation. Does anyone remember playing this as a kid? Well this big version is just as hard!

Peyton really likes playing with this thing.

We got to ride this thing around (I can never remember what they are called and Craig always has to remind me). Craig has never gotten to ride on, but I got to try one at the Epcot center at Disney World years ago. They are really cool, but kind of hard to get used to. Going forward and backwards isn't a problem, its when you go to get off. When you get off you can't shift your weight forward or backward at all or the machine thinks you want to go forward or backward depending on which way you shift your weight. Kind of difficult to get used to.

Peyton loves to go out and see the farm animals.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to get to pet some of the animals. This donkey looked like he was posing for our pictures. I was petting him and he turned his head back and nipped at my fingers. See if I pet him again! I was just glad it was me he nipped at and not Peyton.

Too bad Jackson wasn't in this picture. It would have made a nice family picture.

Up until I was 8 years old, we lived on what my dad calls a "hobby farm". You know the kind with 1 cow, 2 pigs, 3 turkeys, and 4 chickens. Seriously. My dad loved having some animals around and we like to tease him every time we pass some cows and ask him if he would like us to stop so that he can pet one. He loves farm animals. This donkey really seemed to like my dad.

Now my mom's turn taking a picture with the donkey.

My parents.

Craig was looking at these plants and noticed a huge rosemary plant (it is on the right of Craig). He got excited because he loves rosemary and hopes that we can plant one and grow it this big!

My parents came for a visit!

My mom tried to get a picture of this huge bee that was on the flowers. This is called a carpenter bee or boaring bee and they don't sting at all, but are really annoying. They boar into the wood in our deck, porch and even parts of our house that isn't siding. They leave a good hole that I could fit my pinkie into. I need to get a picture of some of the holes that they have drilled into our house. Not too cool!

Me and Jackson after our ride to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa.

Me and my dad. You can tell where I got my height from!