The weather in Central Texas has been crazy nice this January (mid 60's to high 70's) so this past weekend we felt we needed to get outside and do something fun! The kids were more than ready to hit the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas. Boy 1 DROVE US to Waco, 1 hour away and I only freaked out one time. Really! Just one time. He is becoming quite the good driver and even though I love to drive (I'm a bit of a control freak...) it was nice to sit back and play 'Words With Friends' while he did all the driving!
Boy 1 hates it that I still make him pose with his siblings for pictures, but what is a mom to do? It would be wrong to have pictures without him!
The
Cameron Park Zoo is a quick trip from Fort Hood and a perfect day trip for moms with little ones. It only took us 3 hours to go through the zoo, but they have some pretty fun things for little people to do! The zoo has two playgrounds, and all the usual; lions and tigers and bears OH MY! Although we did not see the bears this time - they must have been snoozing out of sight! OH and another cool thing they have is a tube slide in the otter tank! The kids slide right through where the otters are playing!
The kids and I were trying to figure out how many zoos we have visited over the years and the number is pretty high, we have visited way over 20 zoo, drive thru safaris and wild animal parks (don't even get us started on Aquariums)! We tried to rank them in order of how we liked them, but had a very hard time doing so - each zoo has its own special qualities. We LOVED the bird exhibit at the San Antonio Zoo and the San Antonio Zoo is where Girl fell in love with spiders! Drive-thru zoos are always freakishly fun, we loved the Panda's at the San Diego Zoo and Seoul Grand Park had large exhibits for their animals and a stream that ran through the playground, it was a great place to cool off! In Chiang Mai we got to hold baby monkeys! We have ridden on elephants, camels & water buffalo, held snakes, have been too close to Komodo dragons & COULD have gone in a cage with tigers, but decline, thank you very much - we like being among the living.
Back to the Waco Zoo, it might not be the biggest but it is worth a trip!
Yes, I am beautiful, thank you.
What is not to love about the lion fish?
The lions were very spirited on this day; the big guy in this picture was roaring something fierce!
And speaking of lions..... I'm so bored..... Another zoo, another lion...
I'm pretty sure he was looking for a nice appetizer!
OK, this isn't so bad. He is kind of playful!
There were three lions and they were all being very playful!
Isn't he cute?
3 of my monkeys!