Blank Park Zoo

I took the boys to the zoo the day before Ayden's birthday. I had planned on taking them on Ayden's birthday, but he had his mini chefs class that day, and my parents wanted to come visit and take us to Hickory Park and go to the swimming pool. We hadn't been to the zoo since last fall so Ayden was excited to go again. Cael was also really interested in the animals this time. After seeing the Omaha Zoo less than a month prior, the Des Moines zoo was pretty disappointing. Luckily, the boys didn't seem to mind.

Cael checking out the goats.

Ayden loved their dinosaur exhibit. We had to go back and see it again before we left.

Ayden and T-Rex!

Ayden wanted to feed the giraffe, but he was too short so I had to hold him up, which is why I didn't get a picture of him feeding it. Ayden thought it was cool.

The boys loved playing in the sandbox outside the dinosaur exhibit.

The zoo was a lot of fun and the boys were really good. We did have a scary incident at the very end though. We were going through the Discovery Center and Ayden got ahead of me. I was pushing Cael in the stroller and the path was narrow and I couldn't get around people. When I got to the end I didn't see Ayden. There were also some dark rooms along the way and I thought maybe he was in one of them, and that I had passed him so I turned around and went back looking for him. I got to the other end and still no sign of him. I asked a worker to help me look and went through the whole thing again and called out his name along the way. At this point he had probably been missing for 5-10 minutes. Still no sign of him. I went up to the front and told the woman what was going on and gave a description of him. As I was turning around I caught a glimpse of him going into the Discovery Center and yelled out his name. He heard me and turned around, and I told the woman that I found him. Ayden was holding a stuffed giraffe and didn't seem to be the least bit upset. I asked him where he got it and he said he was in the gift shop. I felt kind of dumb for not checking the gift shop in the first place since Ayden loves all gift shops. We put the giraffe back and headed out to the car. I broke down crying in the parking lot while explaining to Ayden how scary that was for me, how strangers could take him, and told him what he needs to do from now on if he gets lost. Ayden was also crying and kept telling me he was sorry. I was just so relieved that he had only been in the gift shop and was safe. About halfway home Ayden said he had a surprise for me. He pulled out a tiny plastic starfish and I asked him where he got it. He told me the gift shop. I told him we don't take stuff from stores. He said, "But Mommy, I didn't have any money to buy it." I explained to him that you need money to buy things, and that we don't take things from stores unless we pay for them. Ayden got two lessons in one day: what to do if you get lost, and shoplifting is bad!