To the ZOO we go . . .

Last weekend we were in Raleigh, NC for Brianna's Continuing Education course and we decided to take an extra day and take Ella on her very first visit to the North Carolina zoo in Asheboro, NC. At first we thought the day was going to be rained out . . . but it turned out perfect weather for walking around with the little precious.When we arrived at the entrance, Ella was so excited to see all the other little kids running around. In fact, I think watching kids was her favorite part of the trip. She would wave her little arms and kick her legs like "Just let me down and I will be off to the races just like they are"

The North Carolina Zoo has done a great job with providing really big landscapes for the animals to live in versus a small cage like other zoos I have been to, the drawback is that some animals are quite far away and hard to see. The day was so mild that we were fortunate enough to see most of the animals out and about. This ELLAphant was doing a little dance for us to snap a photo of.

Ella's first helicopter ride with Daddy - this one stays on the ground, but she got the general idea and was excited about the big yellow flying machine.

This is Ella and I in front of the chocolate plant. Although I have always been a chocolate advocate . . . Ella had increased the fervor of my infatuation ten fold. :-)

And everywhere we go we take a picture of Daddy in front of buffalo . . . I'm not sure why, but now it's tradition.

Momma and baby bear watching the two black bears play. Ella is in deep thought about either the meaning of life or why the bears look so much like Daddy - we're not sure which.

And finally here is our little baby gator in front of the local gator population. We didn't see a lot of orange and blue, but I'm pretty sure I heard the one in the back say" If you ain't a gator -- you're gatorbait to some UNC fans" (sorry Grandpa Joe - there weren't any mountaineers at the zoo for equal representation this time)

We had a lot of fun and Ella didn't fuss ONE TIME the whole day! Sooo, we figure she's full of mommy and daddy's animal loving genes!