Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

While we were in Tennessee we made a fun day out of our day out of the car (this was Thursday the 17th). I had asked friends in the area if anyone wanted to get together and one of my favorite people said she'd love to go to the zoo with us. I was very excited for the chance to go since I hadn't been to that zoo since I was very little. Weird how all that time I lived so close to it and never actually went. And here I am going while pit stopping between living in Florida and living in Idaho. What's even better than a trip to the zoo was the chance to ride with my friend and not drive an extra hour there and back. My friend, Michele, invited her sister and we managed to fit all our kids (me with 2, Michele with 3, and Melissa with 3) in just 2 cars.

All of the kids that we brought. They all had so much fun together!

There wasn't really a line when we got there, but the parking lot was near full. I was expecting it to be packed but it was only pleasantly crowded. There was a lot of walking, a lot of animal looking, and very little sunburning.

Ivan (in the stripes) loved holding Bryce's hand. All of the people in this picture were part of our group. 

The zoo has this awesome play area, totally worth my $15 entrance fee alone. The toddler area is height controlled by an attendant actively bouncing out the big kids. And it was a good thing too. The entire area is covered in mats, like wrestling mats. The benches, parts of the walls, and all the floors were covered in it. So the kids went crazy jumping off of stuff and rolling around. I've never seen them so crazy before, and that's saying something! There was more to the playground, like this huge jungle gym, but I wanted to see both my cuties so we all stayed together. Ivan didn't mind even if he would have liked the other area too. Michele's youngest, Bradley, is right in the middle of age between Ivan and Charlotte and they both loved him! It was so fun to see Ivan and Bradley copying each other and following each other around.

See what I mean by crazy? He was flying all over the place. 

Just practicing her modelling. 

Ivan and Bradley. The only reason I got a picture of them standing still is because they were about to jump off the bench backwards. They had to set it up just right for the both of them to go at the same time. 

Then there's always the petting zoo. Some places have really figured it out and have real animals to pet, not just goats. This place hasn't caught on and all we got were goats. Charlotte wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do with the goats at first. Then one bleated at her and she about jumped out of her skin she was so scared. Then she warmed up to them and we had to pull her away screaming just to leave. She settled down when she learned she got to wash her hands when we were done. This is a new thing that she just absolutely loves.

"You want me to do what?!"

"Oh, well I guess that's cool."

Ivan kept asking if he could ride it. He would say "Where's his backpack so I can ride him?" Backpack as in saddle, I'm guessing. He also thought having that brush on his hand was about the coolest thing ever. 

I've got to say I've definitely been to better zoos. But the company was amazing and it was so fun to be out and about and have some extra help with the kids while letting them do something they so love. Here are some of the exhibits I approve of, since I'm such an expert on zoos. Oh, I forgot a couple really neat things. There were a bunch of babies there. Baby pandas, 2 of them, baby lions, all picking on dad. And then there was the aquarium thing. It wasn't air conditioned, in the south, really? Who does that? And I didn't last long trying to chase after Ivan and it was getting to be closer to the end of the day and I was plain exhausted. Contractions quickly put me on a bench outside where I waited in the shade. What I did see of it was pretty awesome. I don't think I've seen an aquarium to that extent inside a zoo before. They had hundreds of fish, a water monitor, turtles, all sorts of cool stuff. And they had the usual giraffes, elephants, lions, etc. I just figure I've seen pictures of those, what I want to see are pictures with my kids in them.

The zoo had just finished this, apparently. It was a walk through with kangaroos! There aren't any fences between you and the kangaroos and they could walk right up to you, even if they didn't actually do that. 

I can't remember what kind of big cat this is, but I think it's one of the prettiest and coolest I've ever seen. He kept pacing back and forth along the fence there and we couldn't figure out why. Then we went on the other side and saw there was a fish pond with giant coy in it. I bet that cat could see the fish and just wanted to eat them all! Charlotte was laughing hysterically at something, who knows what. 

Out of all the flamingos I've seen in zoos in the south, these ones were by far the coolest. There were a ton of them! And they were all really active. The one on the left here is almost as tall as me. It was way cool to see them sifting through the water. Did you know flamingos eat with their heads upside down? And they use their noses to help filter the water out of their mouths. 

This is at the meerkat exhibit. They thought they were pirates looking through that thing. 

Such a fun trip! We stopped at Burger King afterwards and got a little bit to eat. And an Icee of course.