Tag: Zoo

On July 4th, we went to a smaller zoo that was about an hour away from us. Valeria has taken a real liking to all kinds of animals (she gets her love of animals from her mama), so we thought a zoo day would be perfect. Plus my parents wanted to come along so added bonus for Valeria, since grandma had the week off for vacation. I’ll scatter a few of my favourite photos throughout the post, as always I’m not going to post much of my daughter.

We left fairly early in the morning, but by the time we drove the hour to get there – the place was packed with cars. Not really a surprise, to be fair, since school is out for the summer and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. The zoo is a small one compared to Toronto, but needless to say it had a lot to see and a lot to do! We started off walking around half of the zoo – we saw goats, cows, monkeys, bears, pigs, lions, tigers, zebras, a camel, ostrich and even caught a glimpse of a wolf. Wolves are my husband’s favourite.

Grandma was nice enough to grab us some feed for the animals so we can feed the omnivores and herbivores. Valeria loved feeding the goats. I was able to capture the attention of my beloved bears, who were fast asleep until I threw some food in the cage for them. Beautiful black bears to be exact (though I love all bears, they are my all time favourite), and I just feel a kindred spirit to these gorgeous fur balls. I know crazy right? But they didn’t get up for anyone else, and others were feeding them too. Coincidence? Maybe, but I’m going to pretend like I’m special just this once.

Valeria was having a ball and she wanted to go into every single cage, looking at me and Anthony going “In, in!” And we’d have to tell her no, it’s too dangerous we can’t go in there. She got really upset when she couldn’t get up close and personal, especially with the ones who could tear you apart. She did, however, get her mind off that when we circled back to the goats to feed them. Oh how excited she was that the goats were eating out of her hands.

Once we were done, we took a quick bathroom break – handwashing thoroughly and a diaper change and than off to the picnic area we went, hoping to score a picnic table in the shade. We were indeed successful! We got a solo table right under a big tree, we grabbed the cooler from the car and had a little lunch. It was great because it was right by the splash pad, swings and playgrounds. They even had one of those big bouncy jumping pillow things for the kids, I have no idea what they are called. Did I say this place was amazing yet? It had a lot for kids to do, it was incredible!

Valeria did her rounds, even went to try the splash pad with daddy (I made sure she had a bathing suit that day, with a change of clothing for once she was finished. Prepared mom alert) and she hated the cold water! After a few attempts there, she wanted to play at the playground and we happily obliged. I took her to the toddler play area and she quickly made a friend with a little blonde girl. They took turns going down the slide and playing peek-a-boo through the play house window. It was very cute! She makes friends so easily. Alas, we had to go finish the zoo, so we said bye to her little friend and off we went.

We put everything back in the car and went into the second half of the zoo. There we saw lemurs, all sorts of reptiles, chickens, llamas, kangaroos, peacocks and mini horses. Chickens are Valeria’s absolute favourite animal. So when she saw them she squealed and got so excited, even started making chicken sounds. The white chicken in the photo immediately came to the fence when she started doing it. It was hilarious and I was able to capture a video.

We also went into the souvenir shop and of course we couldn’t leave without a little something. Two small stuffed animals for Valeria, a magnet for the fridge and a cute little crystal for me.

My parents had an absolute blast and my dad would have walked around with Valeria to see it all again, but alas the long day caught up to her and she was exhausted. No nap will do that to you! We piled in the car and Valeria immediately passed out for the hour long car ride – mom and I chatted the whole way, dad was driving and chatting with Anthony, who occupied the passenger seat.

All in all, it was truly a wonderful and fun day and I’m so glad we could spend it with my parents. Hoping to do more trips with the family, not just my side but Anthony’s as well. Would love to take his mom for a day trip (or two) with us this summer.

Hope you enjoyed a small glimpse into our trip and more to come!

I hope you have a wonderful day or night wherever you are in the world!

Ciao!