England 2012 (Part 3) A Day at the Zoo

Gosh, I can't remember the last time I visited the zoo - it must have been when I was 12 or 13 years old.  As a family, we'd always make the trek to Asheboro or Columbia once a year.  Hopefully Steve and I can carry on that tradition with our little family.

We made plans with one of Steve's good friend - Richard, his wife Vickie and their adorable little boy Matthew (almost 2 years old) before we left for England to take a trip to Twycross Zoo.  I was so pumped!  Lottie is really into books right now and almost all of her books have animals in them.  She absolutely adores BEARS (don't ask...) and thinks everything is a bear.  She points at all the animals in her books and says Bear!  BEAR - another one of her first words!  Hilarious! 

Unfortunately, there were no bears at this zoo!  :(  As I said in a previous post, the weather was pretty chilly while we were over.  Me being Mom of the Year didn't bring Lottie's heavy coat (Idiot) so we resorted to a lot of layering and blankets when we were out and about. 

We met Rich, Vickie and their son Matthew at 11:00 a.m. and from there we started exploring...............

When we first walked through the gate.......

Monkeys

Check out this little cutie!!  So sweet!

This Monkey was enjoying a cucumber!

I can't even remember what this was.......  some sort of strange breed.....

Lottie checking out the donkeys which I called mini ponys and got quickly corrected by a laughing Steve saying those are donkeys Tonya - come on!  :)

Bear, Bear, Bear

It's a Giraffe (in a cage), no but in a really small area!

Look Dada!

I'm not sure if it was just me, but I thought the elephants and giraffes were kept in pretty tight quarters. 

Family Portrait

Take two........

Lottie's future English boyfriend!!!  They were so sweet!

Yes, my child is wearing no shoes - pretty sure she ripped them off and may or may not have tried feeding them to the animals

Penguins

No Clue - Fox breed?????

Matthew and Vickie

HUGE turtles

After all the excitement, this little lady was tuckered out!

But she's back.........  Tea time at the cafe!

We had such a blast with Rich, Vickie and Matthew!  They are such a sweet family.  After a long day, we headed for the gift shop.  Steve bought Lottie an elephant toy!

I am so looking forward to another visit to the zoo - hopefully we can make it to Columbia later this year! 

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