Our Trip to the NC Zoo

We took a trip to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, North Carolina last weekend to celebrate Kennedy's birthday. Originally we had planned to do a birthday at the local animal shelter (there was a program in KY at our local shelter for that) but they don't really do that here so we started looking for other animal-related activities as that was her request and settled on the zoo. Kennedy has been to the zoo once in Pennsylvania, but Avery has never been to the zoo so I was pretty excited for them. We invited all our family and The Vaughans and Walls were able to come along. Honey and Big Jim decided to join us too and Kennedy was so excited about that.

The week prior to our trip the weather was looking amazing, but don't you know the morning of , the Weather Channel was showing a percentage chance of rain?!? When we left Charlotte it was 10% chance of rain in Asheboro and somehow on the way down that percent jumped to 90%! I would definitely have preferred we not be in any rain at all, however, the light drizzle kept the temperature low and we didn't need to worry about sunblock (silver linings my friend!) This zoo is huge and involves LOTS of walking so hot and sunny weather would have been way worse. There were quite a few people at the zoo that day too and the parking lot wasn't even half full so if the weather had been perfect it would have been crowded!

So... here's our clan entering the zoo:

First stop: giraffes - we were lucky enough to see Mom and baby right away. This picture is sweet for lots of reasons, but we always say Kennedy and Catherine are peas in a pod and I found it fitting that in this picture they have matching tops and hair bows too!

Her best friends and most desired party guests - her cousins!

I tried really hard to restrain from taking 2,456 pictures of random animals as is normally the case when I go to the zoo (I just find them so fascinating but then the pictures lie on your camera or computer un-printed for eons and serve no purpose), but this guy was so awesome and so close I couldn't help myself.

Team Wall with some rhinos in the distant right rear background. 

Riding the carosel!

Declan's first ever carosel ride!

This zoo is massive and I'd been forewarned. We stopped in the middle and had a picnic before finishing the 2nd half.

Enjoying miniature pink iced cupcakes from Gigi's - Happy Birthday K!

YUM!

Opening gifts. First up: an as seen on TV Slushy Magic cup...maybe we've been watching too many cartoons because as with the Dream Lite...this was on the top of her request list.  

My girl LOVES some Little Pet Shop stuff, but a great deal of those toys are tiny so Aunt Catina gave her an organizer with some more pet shop items inside. She has played with this thing EVERY DAY since opening it!

The Bobbsey Twins taking their nap after a picnic lunch:

It was a great day at the zoo and Kennedy enjoyed every moment!