Zoo and aquarium

For my birthday this year I got memberships to the Louisville Zoo and the Newport Aquarium. We thought that these would be fun activities to take the kids to periodically throughout the year. This also really works out well because Brinley loves animals, so this way she gets to see all different types of animals all year long. We picked the Louisville Zoo because Uncle McKinley lives in Louisville and we figured that when we went to the zoo we could visit him as well.

Brinley and Landon all packed up in the stroller ready for the zoo.

Our little family.

We were really surprised at how active some of the animals were the day that we visited. We had never before seen the lion roaming in his area. He has always been laying down.

Brinley loves to say "Hi" to all the animals. She waves to them and evens tells them "Bye" when it is time to move on.

Landon was just happy to go along for the ride.

Brinley gave the tiger a double wave when he walked out to where she could see him.

Jennifer and I just think it is so cute when these two act like they like each other. I am sure this always won't be the case, so we like to capture it so we can show them one day that they actually liked each other.

We got to go into a caged area with birds that you could feed and hold. Landon really liked this area and reached out many times to try and grab this little bird.

Recently I decided to make a trip up to Cincinnati to visit a friend. Since Jennifer was off from work we decided to take the kids with us and stop by the Newport Aquarium and make it into a little day trip. We also got lucky because the aquarium was having a sale on their backstage tours and animal experiences. I mentioned to Jennifer that I thought the penguin encounter might be fun for the kids. We looked into it and if your child was in an infant carrier then you didn't have to pay for them as long as they were under 25 pounds. It just so happens that we have 2 carriers and both children are under the weight limit. So we decided to give it a try even though Brinley is almost 2 years old. It worked like a charm. All 4 of us ended up getting to do the penguin experience where we got to pet 4 different penguins for just $20. It was definitely worth every penny and I am glad that we got the pictures because I am not sure that later in life either kid will remember the trip. We just wish we could have taken Aunt Andrea because she loves penguins.

Green screened picture of us with all kinds of underwater creatures.

Brinley really enjoys standing on this ledge and seeing all the sharks swim by her.

It is so neat to see sharks so close without having to worry about getting bitten.

Brinley saying hi to mommy.

It is always funny to get family pictures taken by strangers because you never know how they might turn out. This one looks like Landon is hiding.

Even though there is a barrier between us it is still scary to be this close to a 13+ foot alligator. Especially one named Big Mike.

Brinley got to touch a turtle at the new Turtle Canyon Exhibit.

Brinley gets easily distracted and wants to run all over the place. So getting put up on my shoulders is usually the way to distract her and get us going in the right direction again. She was really upset that we didn't stay longer at the frog play area.

This ended up being a good picture of us with the shark. (If only Brinley had been looking.)

A family photo with the penguin statues.

Landon really enjoyed the penguins. He would follow them as they swam around and would have the biggest smile when they came close to him.

Landon trying to catch the penguin as it dove under the water.

Brinley getting to touch one of the penguins. She was really nice to the little guys.

Landon was also really gentle with the penguins too.

Family shot with a real penguin.

A picture of Brinley's reaction to touching the penguin. I wish we could have had it on tape because each time they took the penquin away Brinley would say bye to it.

We are excited to have our memberships to both the zoo and aquarium. They are both places that the kids get excited and enjoy seeing all the animals. I believe that we will be members of both places for many years. Thanks for reading and God Bless!