Jacksonville Zoo

   Yesterday I left at 10:30 to head to Jacksonville to meet my family at the zoo. I really enjoyed when we went to the Florida Aquarium in September and thought this may be a similarly fun experience. I was supposed to leave at 9:30, but then realized that I had left my keys in Michael's car the night before and he was out running errands with Brian. (They are working on their Benthic and Edrio costumes - characters from Rogue One - for the Star Wars Celebration convention next month. Fun fact: Michael and I went to that convention in August 2010.) Luckily, remembering a hilarious article I read the other day about "not caring so much"/ wasting energy about little unimportant things, I didn't let the time delay bother me and wrote thank you cards to people until Michael and Brian got home an hour later.

   I narrowed down the pictures from 448 to 181, and filtered once more to 124, then picked my 48(!) personal favorites to post. I quickly switched from the regular kit lens to the zoom lens since a lot of the animals were farther away and think it gave my pictures a bit of a National Geographic look with the depth of field.  

 ^^ The Giraffe Hyena as Daddy called it.

   The lunch we had at the zoo was super good, including a Cuban sandwich, which might be a "pregnancy craving" since I have been eating more than usual and pick that option anytime it is available. Something about the great bread, salty ham and pickles. I could go for one right now. ;) We also all shared a churro which I could have eaten five more of all by myself!

 ^^ Waving to Peyton on the carousel.

 She didn't like the goats or want to pet them. That's the closest she would get, and even clung to me the first minute because Zach and my mom were too close to the goat.

 She loved running into her grandpa's arms!

 Exploring the playground and being patient when all the bigger kids ran up the stairs past her, so she waited her turn.

   I always like spending time with Peyton because I want her to remember me and love hearing her call me "Raysh", but am also very interested in hearing her say new words and see how her communication has progressed. This time saying "yah yah" and clapping her hands for "yes" seemed like a new thing. And would say "bye bye" to a lot of the animals (giraffe, "turto"/ turtle, "drayon"/ dragon) and a whispered "pengmmm" for penguin as if she was embarrassed that she couldn't fully grasp that word yet.

 In the next updated grandparents photo, who will hold Emma? :o

 ^^ Doing the robot? =) She still likes being held a lot and kept reaching her arms out to us, but also seemed to enjoy running around freely this day. But not as freely as she may have liked.

  Also since I complained about the weather last week when it was abnormally cold for a few days, I should mention how glorious and perfect the weather was at the zoo. I'm not sure of the temperature, maybe 78-82, but we were able to stand in the shade a lot of the time. The park also had a water pad play area for kids.