The Zorio Family: Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day Weekend was the first one that John has not had to work since we've been married, so we made plans and intended to make it an awesome holiday weekend! On Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head down to Birmingham to visit the zoo with our friends, the Heatons. They have Jack (2.5 years old) and Gabe (8 months). With all the kids and carseats we drove down separately, but the guys took advantage of the caravan and used the radios to talk between the cars. This was possibly the highlight of the trip for John and Eric (only kidding). When we were less than 10 minutes from the zoo traffic on the Interstate came to a complete stop for a little over an hour due to a wreck. We were stuck, and we were worried that with the boys being fussy from being trapped in the car not moving for an extra hour the day would be rough too. Thankfully we were wrong.

When we got to the zoo the boys were so happy to get out of the car into their strollers. It was so sweet to watch Dawson's face and see how excited he got about every animal. The Birmingham Zoo was very nice, and the habitats were set up so that the animals were visible. Out of all of the animals we saw, Dawson's favorite (based on which animal he now talks about the most) was the peacock. There was an area near the cafe and pop jets where roosters, peacocks, and a few other birds roamed freely. Dawson saw the peacock and began chasing it. When we went inside to eat he had to sit near the window to watch the peacock. He kept shouting, "Come back! Come back here peacock!" Now we talk about the peacock multiple times a day.

After eating lunch in the cafe near the peacock :) we changed the boys into their swim gear so that they could play in the pop jets for a while. Dawson was not as fond of this at the zoo as I had thought he would be. It could have been because there were a few rowdy bigger kids there too. After getting a little wet to cool off, John and I took Dawson on the carousel.

Next we visited the petting zoo where Dawson got to brush goats and see a sheep, llama, and a tiny owl that a zoo keeper was holding.

Next we visited Trails of Africa which is the newest addition to the zoo. We saw the lions and elephants up close, and then we were on to the giraffes. The giraffe exhibit at the zoo was awesome. You could go up on a platform and feed the giraffes out of your hand! Dawson and I went up while John stayed below to snap a few pictures. We got to feed him 2 big pellets (almost the size of my thumb) and 2 twigs of bamboo. Dawson thought this was great! Their long black tongues reached out and would lick your hand as they got the food. (Don't worry we washed our hands really well after that!) It was cool just to be at eye-level with the giraffes on the little platform, let alone feed them!

Another highlight of the trip for Dawson and Jack was when we rode on the train around the zoo. It was probably about a 10-15 minute ride, and Dawson now loves to talk about how we rode a choo-choo! Riding the train was also nice because the wind cooled us down a little from the hot temperatures that were in the 90's that day! Other highlights for the boys were the turtles, geese (Dawson still talks about seeing "a geese with Pop" last time we were in Tennessee, so seeing geese at the zoo was really exciting for him), snakes, all kinds of birds (which Dawson now says, "birdie zoo LOUD!" because the macaws were super loud which Dawson didn't really like), a tiger, and more!

We kept the boys up through nap time so they could see as much of the zoo as they wanted to, and they were exhausted when we left. Dawson was asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot, and I'm pretty sure John was asleep before we hit the interstate (he worked the night before and did the zoo on a few hours sleep, so I had promised to drive home so he could rest). We were all exhausted, but we had such an awesome trip to the zoo with our friends!

After resting in the car and coming home to grill dinner, we headed our to our friend's pool to swim! Our friends, Mo and DeeDee are always so awesome to let us swim in their pool in the summer, and they live so close to us that we plan to be over there a lot more this summer! :) This was Dawson's first time in the pool this summer, and he was a lot more cautious than last year. He did get in the water with John holding him, but he didn't just love it! However, we went back to swim again on Sunday night (see our friends are going to regret giving us the open invitation! :) haha!), and Dawson was already more comfortable with getting in the water to swim. Swimming with our friend was a nice way to relax and continue to cool off after spending the day sweating at the zoo!

Sunday we took Dawson to Dublin Park to play at Kid's Kingdom for a while. Each time we go there, I'm amazed at how good of a climber he is. He climbs right up the whole castle to go down slides or through tunnels. After spending a while at Dublin we headed home to fill up the inflatable pool in our backyard since it was another scorcher. We played in the water the rest of the morning, and then Dawson took almost a FOUR HOUR NAP! We must have worn him out good because he usually doesn't even nap for 2 hours. I think it was a combination of the zoo the day before too though. I couldn't believe he slept that long. After he got up we went back over to swim at our friends house again.

Then on Memorial Day we played in our yard in the kiddie pool, and went over to our friends, Ben and Melanie's house for a cook-out that night. Dawson's friend Connor was there, and the boys enjoyed "racing" back and forth across the yard while the girls sat and chatted and the guys played corn hole. Now Dawson likes to talk about "racing" Connor.

Our Memorial Day weekend was jam-packed, and SO much fun! I was not ready for it to end.

This morning Dawson and I invited some friends over to play in the kiddie pools and water in the backyard. His friends Ethan, Austin, Jude, Jasper, Georgia, Jackson, and Connor all came and of course their moms. I set up two slip-n-slides, the bigger kiddie pool, the smaller crab pool, the beach ball fountain, and the splash pad. All of the kids had so much fun running and splashing together! It was sweet to watch them. After spending a couple of hours in the heat (it's 98 here today!) and running around the whole time, they should all be ready for AWESOME naps!

We have had a great past few days, and the fun should only continue as we are heading to Tennessee again this weekend to go to a friends wedding! For now, enjoy the pictures below...