Thursday, May 21, 2015

A Day Out!

We have had so much going on lately. When I saw our May family calendar at the beginning of this month I wanted to teleport myself to June, it looked so scary. A million things must get done, the kids have a million extracurricular activities, Jon was scheduled to work a million extra hours in Fayetteville, and of course we've had a few unexpected "bumps in the road" along the way. When it rains, it pours! 
We desperately needed a "Day Out" on Saturday. The weather was near perfect-- sunny and 80 degrees, and despite that we had about four other conflicting things on the calendar, we canceled them all and headed to the Aloha Zoo in Cameron, NC. It's a family-run "rescue" zoo that takes in unwanted, endangered, mistreated and abused animals-- of all kinds, And they had quite a mix! 
They're only open on Saturdays and Sundays, and it kind of felt like a "best kept secret," because it wasn't too busy. I honestly wish we had come sooner because it was so much better than the Zoo in Asheville, cheaper, and closer, and the kids got much more hands-on experience. They were able to feed and pet the goats and pigs first. 

Spring was the perfect season to come because there were baby animals everywhere!! These little piglets were just too cute. Lucy and I were ready to snatch one and take it home.
Leah is so finicky about the animals-- she wants to get close enough to see them, but NOT so close that they can touch her! That totally freaks her out. She made me take her picture far away from the feeding pen, because she didn't trust those greedy goats not to eat her from behind! 

 They have a "Safari" which takes you out into the areas where the big animals are kept-- and they had everything! Ostriches, zebras, gazelles, long-horn cattle, water buffalo, camels, I can't even remember what all they had back there! Apparently they receive their funding from the military, because Ft. Bragg sends their veterinarians to train there. 
They also had the cutest giraffe! Apparently they found it living inside a man's garage, and they rescued it and brought it here to live. The kids were even able to feed it carrots! 
At the sight of its long blue tongue Lucy was officially creeped out, but Zach had no problem feeding him the rest of the carrots. Leah wouldn't go anywhere near! They also had monkeys, tigers, alligators, snakes, birds, horses, etc. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it.
We were only a hop, skip, and jump away from Cary at that point, so we decided to get lunch at Red Robin. It's such a treat to go there because this is the closest one-- 60 minutes away, and it's one of our favorites. Who doesn't love a good burger?
Cheese! Leah loves her grilled cheese and did really good at lunch (other than when she spilled her entirely full glass of chocolate milk all over the table, sigh).  But we're getting there!
Next we drove over to Waverly Place which is a newer shopping center with an outdoor playground and splash pad. For some reason they didn't have the water turned on at the splash pad, so the kids found their way over to the fountains, and it was so hot and humid I didn't care if they weren't supposed to play in it!
Either way, they were soaked and had a blast playing in the water!
We decided to finish the day off with a bang and get Gigi's Cupcakes since it was most likely our last time EVER, here in North Carolina. That's a sad thought! They are delicious, and it was the perfect sweet treat to end the day with, on our very needed, very deserved, "Day Out."