Louisville Zoo...the Finale

Toward the end of our day at the Louisville Zoo, Sophie was looking a little wilted and tired, but luckily at the bottom of the hill (and smack dab at the half-way point), there was a little water park. It was so hot by this time, we just let Sophie run around and get her self wet. As you can tell by the pictures, it sure perked her up!



The last thing we did before leaving was go on the little train that goes around the park. Sophie had been looking forward to this all day long, and it didn't disappoint.



Here she is pretending to be a giraffe again:

The trip had a couple of small tunnels, and the conductor told the kids to feel free to yell as we went through them. Sophie was a little scared and hesitant at first, but then really got into it. It so impressed her that to this day she yells quietly every time we go under a tunnel or even an overpass!


Here we all are on the train:

Louisville Zoo Part 2

So, we've finally settled down for a few days again, so I can finish posting the Louisville Zoo pictures. Here are some pictures of Sophie with some of her other favorite animals.

At the hippo exhibit:


At the gorilla exhibit. She obviously has some growing to do before she becomes a full-grown gorilla!

This is a really bad picture, but one of the few that I got with both Sophie and the gorilla on the other side of the glass:

Looking at zebras with daddy:

Petting the goats at the petting zoo. She was okay with them at first, but then got scared and wouldn't pet any more.





There was a man who had an elephant tusk that children could touch. She enjoyed testing out the feel:


And riding the elephant:

I have a few more pictures that I'll try to post in the next day or two. After that, we'll move semi-permanently over to the other blog until next summer.

A Trip to the Zoo

Right after Sophie's birthday, we (Ian, Grandpa Fine, Grandma Fine, and myself) took Sophie to the Louisville Zoo. It was a hot day, but Sophie seemed to really enjoy it. Her favorite animal this trip was the giraffe. And I think her favorite part of the trip was the little train that went around the park. I'll post some pictures of the zoo over the next few days.


This big giraffe was licking the poles, so...

...Sophie decided to imitate him:




As always, Sophie liked the reptile house. If you look really hard, there is an albino alligator behind the reflection of her arm in the first picture.



Here she is trying to give Grandma a kiss:

Grandpa's favorite seemed to be the rhinos. Surprisingly, they were active that day, so we got to see them move around.

Visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore

While in Baltimore, we took Sophie to the National Aquarium. We know she likes fish (partly because of her love of Finding Nemo), but I was surprised at how engaged she was. We were there for about 3 hours, which is a long time in the world of a toddler. At the beginning she really watched the fish, but toward the end, she enjoyed just running from exhibit to exhibit. The fun thing, though, was that we asked her what she saw at the aquarium a few days later, and she came up with "Nemo," "sharks" and "fishies." She's been remembering her experiences lately, and has been able to express herself when asked about them. (She also gave us a list of her favorite foods recently: eggs, strawberries, broccoli.)

The first thing we found when we walked in were giant bubble tubes. She had fun watching the bubbles and playing with the tubes:



Her favorite exhibit, hands down, was watching the sharks. There was one shark swimming around in the sting ray pool:


And in the actual shark exhibit, there were cutouts of sharks. She really enjoyed them and insisted on going up to each one to touch it.

Here are some shots of her with the fish:





And some shots with Ian, Aunt Heather and I:

And finally, at the end of the visit, we went to the store. She enjoyed wearing her penguin hat around.
And here she is sitting in a big girl chair having a snack after our long afternoon: