The Real Reason You Take a Baby to the Zoo

Would you believe me if I said Harper was dying to go to the zoo? She begged for days for us to take her so she could see and learn about all the different animals? Anybody? Yeah that's kinda what I thought. Six month olds don't ask to go to the zoo, and you're probably lucky if they even noticed one animal. Really lucky if they notice two. The real reason we took Harper on a trip to the zoo? Because even at 26 years old, I love the zoo - and if I can drag my husband, sister, and baby along and pretend it's really for her, I'll do it. Clearly.

We (and by we - I mean my sister and me) decided to use Harper as a reason to visit a local zoo that we learned about not too long ago. The zoo sounded pretty cool from the beginning because all the animals at the zoo are rescued animals that were hurt or in danger at some point. You can't pet the animals, feed the animals, but you can walk around the park and enjoy peeking at native animals to our area. Plus - it's completely FREE. All the people that work at the zoo volunteer their time to make sure they're being taken care of properly. We decided to go in the morning to try and beat the summer heat. There was already a good amount of people there, but not so crowded you couldn't see any of the exhibits. Harper made it to two exhibits before she fell asleep in her stroller. We continued walking around, looking at the animals that were there. And lucky enough right before we were about to leave, the princess herself woke up and was able to take a quick walk back through the zoo to check it out. She may have been more fascinated by the trees blowing in the breeze, but I'm pretty sure she loved the turkeys the most because they made so much noise.  It was a sweet little day, and something we definitely won't hesitate taking her back to next summer when she'll be a little older. And I won't even have to use her as an excuse for me to go. :)