Last weekend, we went on our annual zoo visit with Hollie, her husband and their three girls. Actually, scratch that, we didn’t make it out last year, so maybe almost-annual is more appropriate.

On Friday, we opted to change our plans from Saturday to Sunday in order to avoid the rain (ha ha ha). It barely rained Saturday, but most of Sunday morning it rained. When we arrived, we saw the elephants and lions and then turned around to do the indoor rainforest.

Jameson always likes the rainforest because we let him walk around. Also, his stroller was pretty wet. After the rainforest, it was still raining, so we went to the Winking Lizard for lunch about 15 minutes away. By the time we were finished eating, it was clearing up a bit.

It was around 2, and Jameson skipped his nap like a champ. It probably helped that Brian gave him full, un-watered-down Fruit Punch. Jameson spent lunch being silly, laughing and tapping my arm over and over. He was adorable on what must have been his very first sugar high.

We went back to the zoo, and Jameson loved walking around with the girls, particularly the oldest who read him stories in the car on the way back to the zoo, and he spent a lot of time out of his stroller rather than in wherever possible, until he seemed to get tired. And even then he was asking for more animals!

Since it was nice and cool out, we saw a lot of active animals. We saw the bears tussling each other for food, and the wolves which are usually sight unseen were all roaming their habitat. The beaver swam right by Jameson!

We usually don’t opt for this splurge activity, but we did pay for nectar to feed the birds. We didn’t let Jameson try this time, maybe next!

One of the birds even hopped right on to Hollie’s hand!

Our last and my favorite stop was by the kangaroos. None of them were out, but we went to the kangaroo hop spot where the length of a kangaroo’s leap is represented on the soft, spongy ground. Perfect for jumping! The girls all jumped and Jameson wanted to join in.

Poor kid can’t really jump yet. He doesn’t get both feet of the ground, but he sure did try.

We ended at the gift shop (of course), where Jameson finally had his meltdown. He didn’t understand that it was a store and not for touching or playing with everything. I did pick up a little beanie tiger for him with big wide eyes. He seemed to like the little wide eyed stuffed animals which we also saw at the rainforest, gathering two or three at a time in his arms like he was going to cart them all off.

However, in his upset, he didn’t appreciate the little tiger until we got home. We left just as it began to rain again, and Jameson yelled all the way home. Not crying, just yelling his head off for fun it seemed. He did great for missing his nap and being out all day! We had a blast, and it was great to see our friends again.

Now he likes to get ready to sleep and read in mom or dad’s lap with his new little tiger, his big blanket (since we discontinued the blanket bag), his little lovey blanket, and his little bear all surrounding him.