Zoo!

We had our first zoo adventure with Jett! It was so fun! I picked the perfect day with perfect weather and had my parents and brother tag along with us. Hogle Zoo had just completed their new African Savanna exhibit that I was anxious to see. Off we went!

Jett looked adorable in his hat and Utes shirt! What a little stud. He was such a happy camper! He just sat calmly in his stroller while we went from one exhibit to the next, occasionally getting taken out to hold him up to see animals or get a piggyback ride from grandpa. 

Jett was able to focus on the zoo animals much better than our outing to the aquarium. It was so fun watching his eyes wander around until he finally spotted whatever animal we were pointing to, then his focus would be locked on them in a gaze. Too cute! He got to be strollered up close to several animals. The gorillas were huge and I thought he'd be a little intimidated by their size, but he tried touching the glass when one came right by him and sat down. The big apes creep me out but sure looked soft. 

One of my favorite exhibits is the river otters. How adorable are they?! Jett liked watching them swim by. Otters have always been a fave of mine and apparently now his because they are the same size. The pic we took of him with the otter statue is probably the cutest picture in history. Look at him standing up on his own! Sweet Jetty Jettson.

I was a little sad for him when he couldn't see some of the bigger animals because they weren't moving...that's the only way an animal would get his attention. This means the rhinos were a no-go and sadly, even the elephants. They were just standing on their little island shoveling grass in their mouths...not enough movement to catch Jett's attention. All of the big cats were also sleeping and didn't move, so they were a loss (but not to the rest of us!): the lions, tiger, snow leopard, and regular leopard...all snoozing. I will give credit though to the linx that came out of his den to pose, look around and then do kitty stretches, but Jett was more interested in grabbing the rope fence surrounding the linx and didn't look up. 

Jett's favorite animal at the zoo were the meerkats. It was the cutest moment ever! I was able to move his stroller straight up to the glass windows. Jett instantly caught sight of them scampering around and let out squeals of delight! He'd then lean forward in his stroller to touch the glass and try to touch them. We spent a good amount of time watching them interact...me mostly getting all giddy about Jett and his preciousness.

I couldn't resist having Jett go on the carousel. I had spotted a cute penguin for him to sit on but it got snagged before we got to it. We ended up on a tiger cub instead that was just as cute. I thought Jett would instantly enjoy holding on to the pole and having something to grab, but he didn't know quite what to do and just kind of went with the flow, not sure what was going on and why he was bobbing up and down. It was precious! Unfortunately, we didn't get great pics of the event because our tiger cub was on the inside of the carousel. Next time.

Our last stop at the zoo was the Zoosafari train. Jett didn't really look around much at the animals we passed but seemed to enjoy the steady ride...and then bench in front of us...and my necklace. I decided it would be a good time to attempt a family pic on the train, so there we have it. Me and my two boys. Love! ♥ Oh, and for the record, Jake wasn't making a kissy face, he was saying "ooh" to Jett to look at the camera. They both ended up with Zoolander faces. 

It was such a fun day and experience with my sweet boy. He did so good for being out over 3 hours (in the sun) with so much going on and much to see. He was one tired boy afterwards and fell right asleep in when we made it back to our car as the zoo was closing. If I had this much fun seeing his zoo experience, I can only imagine what Disneyland with him will be like one day!