Easons - 0, Dallas Zoo - 1

Nathan was missing his best buddy Carter, so our families decided to venture out to the Dallas Zoo this past Saturday.  All of us loaded up in our Explorer (yay for fold-up third row seating and saving an extra $7 bucks on parking!), and we headed towards the giant giraffe statue on I-35E.

The morning was cloudy, overcast and residing at a nice 80 degrees.  Perfect zoo weather, in my opinion.  However, the drive over brought much sunshine, zero clouds and a 15 degree spike in the temperature.  Don't get me wrong here; I've lived in Texas all my life.  I know hot.  But in mid-May? with an overcast morning? Let's just say it's not what I was expecting. If I'm going to traipse around in nine thousand degree weather while pushing a 30 lb. toddler in a stroller, I like to be prepared.  And prepared for the heat, I was not.  (Side note: can anyone tell me when I aged fifty years?  I mean, seriously? An entire paragraph about the weather? Sheesh!)

So anyway, we whipped out the strollers, slathered on the sunscreen and off we went.  Seeing the people passing us in the parking lot already leaving the zoo at noon, drenched in sweat, looking exhausted beyond all get-out should have been my first clue that this wasn't going to be a walk in park.  Oh, and this?  Trying to get a decent picture of the three kids?

Should have been my second clue.

The first thing we saw were the flamingos.  Carter vividly remembered this familiar animal from our visit to the aquarium last fall.

Then Nathan showed us his intelligence by pointing out this blue-and-yellow macaw.

"You want me to smile, Mom?  Not a chance."

Then we stumbled across the Bird & Reptile building.  [Oh sweet, blessed air conditioning.]  And can you guess what we saw there?  You got it: birds. and reptiles.  But pictures of those aren't near as interesting as the "Ghosts of the Bayou" exhibit.  Here we met Boudreaux, a 9-foot albino alligator and his swamp friends.

Nathan and Carter were also able to fulfill one of their requests for the day: to pet a snake.

That's Carter's hand on the bottom.  Purell, anyone?

Then we went into a butterfly garden.  And I took a picture of a butterfly.  The end.

Moving right along, we were able to see anteaters, monkeys, more birds, a tiger and a turtle.  Is this not the most boring picture ever?

(even now, looking back, I can't tell which end is the front and which is the back.  Still looks like a giant rock to me.)

The boys stopped to watch some more fortunate children riding a camel, but no way was that worth an extra $5 bucks to me.  Instead, I asked the boys to pose for a picture by the fence and this is what I got:

I know.  Precious three-year-olds.

On our way to the gorilla exhibit, after we stopped for some refreshments in the Zoofari food court, we tried again to get a picture of the three.  Notice Olivia's giant souvenir Icee cup.  Yup, definitely MY daughter.

The gorilla exhibit was basically a bunch of trail walking with a slight chance to see a gorilla.  Which I did not.  Nick and Carter may have seen one, but I was waiting with Olivia in the shade.  Did I mention how hot it was?

And this, my friends, is the closest we got to any elephants.  I know!  No elephants? At the zoo?  Well, actually, the elephants were there along with the giraffes & the lions, but they had already been moved from their previous habitat to their new home, the Giants of the Savanna.  Which doesn't open until Memorial Day Weekend.  The weekend after we were there.  But hey, for the small price of a zoo membership ($99+), we could have seen them while we were there.  No thanks. (I have to admit here, that Leslie, Ryan and I were plotting how we could sneak past security and slip into the new exhibit unnoticed, but then we came to our senses.)  And I told Carter they were sick.  It was the best I could come up with.

You all know that kids never want to leave anywhere fun, so we bribed them with a ride on the endangered species carousel, took this really awesome picture, and went home.

Oh and the best part about all this?  I had two vouchers that would have given Nick & I free admission.  Annnnnd I left them in the car.  So, I guess we'll be headed back to the zoo before the end of 2010.  And you better believe I'll be seeing some elephants.