Contemplated dropping our monkeys off at the zoo..

So we decided to take the hour drive out to the new zoo and aquarium that just opened...

The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves..Luke was pretty excited about seeing the alligator this close..he was so cute telling me to take a picture of him..(please disregard grainy photo..don't get me started on my dang camera again..I seriously had a tantrum in the aquarium about it..)

It was pretty cool how they even had it so when you looked up there was things going on..

They even allowed you to touch the ray thingys.. I didn't particularly like the idea of the kids doing that but daddy helped them while mommy stood far away cringing as she took pictures..

Then one huge part of the park is this flume ride..which the kids went CRAZY over..

You get in this log and it takes you through all of these exhibits.. here are the monkeys.. you were seriously so close to the animals I was scared they were going to jump in the log with us..and yes in the back of that photo you can see the part of the ride where you go up and then free fall into the water and get splashed.. We don't need to worry about taking the kids to Disneyland they LOVED that part and were begging us to ride it again...

Here the ride takes us through the aquarium ...

And pass the Macaw's..

Then we decided to take the "African Safari Train" which takes you through "Africa"..

There was an open field that the train traveled through and you could see birds..antelopes..zebra..ostriches.. and other things they said could potentially come up to the train.. we weren't that impressed..

By far though the most exciting part of the whole trip was getting to feed the giraffe's!!

It was amazing!! The kids and I were so excited and I couldn't stop laughing and smiling..

The way their tongues feel when they wrap around your hand to take the food tickles and it was just so neat being able to pet them and feed them..

I have a serious crush on giraffe's now..

It ended up being a very relaxing fun family day..