The Bunch Go To The Ft Worth Zoo

 

We arrive excited to start our day 😁 

We have wanted to go to the zoo for what feels like forever. Zoos have always been one of our most favorite family activities. We use to go the Ft Worth Zoo every year, but then we visited the Dallas zoo and discovered that we thought the Dallas zoo had better quality exhibits and started going there once a year instead. Then Covid hit and everything came to a stand still and we never really went to the zoo since, except for the tiny little zoo by our house that doesn't even compare to Dallas or Ft Worth zoos, but is actually pretty nice for a small town zoo. Well, the Ft Worth Zoo has recently made some renovations that would bring it up to par with the Dallas zoo and we wanted to check it out. It did not disappoint! The elephants were no longer in their sad little sand cage, but instead had a much larger enclosure with a water hole to swim in and tree trunks to play with. The giraffes had their own savannah. Most of the habitats have been renovated to resemble their natural environment. I still think we prefer the Dallas Zoo, actually nothing can beat the penguin exhibit at the St Louis Zoo, but for a zoo close to home Dallas is our favorite. We had a fantastic day! A was feeling nostalgic and wanted us to do things like we did when we visited when she was little so we packed our picnic, ate at "our" spot, and took photos at all our favorite spots. Unfortunately, a large part was still being renovated so we didn't get to do everything, which by the way Ft Worth Zoo why are we paying regular prices but not getting to see a quarter of the zoo?

This was our first visit that we didn't bring our wagon for the kiddos to ride in when they got tired of walking and A mentioned several times she could have used it later in the afternoon. I think we ended up walking about 5 miles, which isn't super far. We have definitely walked more, but when we weren't walking we were standing so basically we spent about 5 hours just standing and walking in the heat. I had doubled up on my meds in anticipation of the extra standing and walking so I felt great, but A was starting to say she was tired of walking and D and T had already gone to wait on a bench so we decided to head home a little earlier than we had planned. We had a lot of fun though and now A wants to go to the Dallas Zoo. She even said it would be her treat and the girl spends money on almost nothing. She won't even buy gum. She literally puts it on her birthday list in bulk. She is so frugal so I know she must really want to go.

We have so much fun stuff coming up and T is planning his Sweet 16 and A her 21st birthday, which she is treating me to a vacay with her for a week so Yay! This is going to be a great summer! Also, A has started her very last class. Life keeps moving on.

There was a tiny baby orangutan. He was so cute 🥰 

The big silver back gorilla that had been inside forever passed away. They didn't do anything with the exhibit.

There were flamingos everywhere. T is such a giant!

The giraffe exhibit is so nice now. Definitely on par with Dallas.

We have taken this picture every time we have been to the zoo since the kids were tiny. They go A LOT farther now than the first time, but we still have fun seeing who goes the farthest.

A went surprisingly far. Almost as far as T, but he was FINALLY the winner.

We also always take this picture. T barely fit this time! His head touched the ceiling and he had to shimmy through the door.

In our first picture of this, I think T was about 2 and his arms weren't even as long as the one in the center.

T did fantastic playing in our service. My parents came up to support him and we all had a nice time. I really wanted to clap and cheer for him, but I held it in.😂 He plays again in 3 weeks.