DSAMT Family Picnic at the Zoo- July 2013

This year, the annual picnic put on by our local Down syndrome Association was held at the zoo! I was pretty excited about taking the kids to this zoo on Sunday. It had been a few years since we took Etta and it would be Daniel's first trip. We arrived a little after 10:00, loaded kids into the wagon, slathered on sunscreen, and made our way through the gates! It was quite hot and humid, but the trails were mostly shaded so that helped. We ran into several Ds families (some we knew and some we didn't) as we wandered around the zoo until it was time to meet up for lunch.

Meercats!

Petting Zoo! ("Animal Encounters")

Flamingos!

We stopped for a "train" ride along the way which the kids enjoyed.

Aligators!

Zebra!

Sorry for the crappy camerawork! I was trying to walk around while holding the baby, WHILE feeding her, WHILE working the camera. I really took the video for the audio since we had a hard time seeing the monkeys through the trees. 

Then we made our way over to the pavillion where the group would be gathering and lunch would be served. We grabbed a spot at an empty table and I went and got a plate of food to feed the kids. Our table quickly filled with our friends (Suzy and her crew & Amanda A, and her daughter and husband). 

We had a good time hanging out and as we were finishing up lunch, the rain came in. Luckily, it only lasted about 25 minutes and we were able to take Etta potty without getting drenched. Then, we ran up to see the elephants and the giraffes really quickly.

We also tried out the carousel! I was excited for this one and the kids loved it at first. I think it went around about five or six times. I was done with it after about the third spin (and so were the kids).

Kids are DONE!

After the carousel, it was time to head home. The kids were just DONE! It was hot and the baby needed to eat and we just needed some air conditioning! We walked out of the gates around 1:40 and sat in out in the car for a bit so I could feed Alice before we drove back home.