Zoo pics as promised...and a post from dad

we mentioned a couple of posts back about our "single kid" weekend and what happend after with the puking and all. i wanted to share some pictures from our trip to the zoo. at first he was a little confused because kyan went with patty in her car, kynsie went with barbara in her car and he was in daddy's car...but once we got to the zoo he was soooooo excited. it was a fun day for him and daddy...little did we know that we would soon be sick for 1 week!!!

at the waterfall at the entrance of Knoxville Zoo

Here he is looking into a hole to find bears...

"dere he is dad...look..." is what i heard when he found him. he was up in a tree!!!

we got tired of walking, so we rented a stroller at the zoo. seemed to be a good thing later in the day!

"PENGUNS, daddy...PENGUNS!!!"

this next picture makes me crack up just looking at it. there was the mascot of the zoo in a beaver costume and he would take pictures with kids (and the occasional weird adult to). so we saw him coming and i didn't know if he would like him or not. i asked him if he wanted to have his picture made and off he went...right into another family's picture!!! this was the only one i got, because when i got him back, he thought i was getting onto him and cried a little and then the beaver went away. but he did not forget, about 2 hrs later he looks at me and says, "dad, we need to find the big beaver"...and then proceeds to yell "BIG BEAVER WHERE ARE YOU???"

resting in the stroller...

we got to see the elephants take a bath...

here is one of the elephants up close...

braylen watching....

he couldn't see from his other spot, so he wedged himself between to people and strained to see...

next it was off to see the zweebas (or zebras for anyone that doesn't speak 3 yr old.)

daddy and braylen...say cheese...

lion in cage...wasn't to fond of people this day...

braylen looking for lion...

lioness on her perch...

looking at the silver back gorilla...

again at the gorilla...the whole time he's making the sounds!!!

up close of the big guy....

no use for the stroller...wanna walk dad....come on...les go...

this was the white tiger...it's like where's waldo though...i know he was there....

taking a water break...

looking out on the other side of the zebra pit...

at the giraffes...he was on his way to tell a young couple that there were three giraffes, a mommy, a daddy and a baby...they simple smiled and said that's right...he said..yep, i know.

giraffe

rhino

cheesing it up in the stroller...

this is one of the red pandas at the zoo. they look like racoons, but braylen called them "big red pandas"

he was fascinated by them...it was his favorite animal (unless of course you count the BIG BEAVER as an animal)

we got to see the otters playing in their pond...

here he is outside the reptile part...

Then it was off to the kids cove and we rode the merry-go-round. it was his first time and he loved it...loved it so much that he wanted to ride every animal on there...how do you explain to a three yr old that you can't? that was what i didn't know and once the ride was over, we had a melt down cause daddy didn't have $2 more to ride again...next time we'll know!!!

that one looks like fun...

he liked the lion, but wasn't real sure about it...

well, there are pictures of the zoo as promised...hope you are doing well. dad's post will have to be later...it's now 1:30 am and i'm tired!!!!