Knoxville Zoo Trip With Grandkids Tessa's First Zoo Trip

Knoxville Zoo Trip With the Grandkids
Tessa's First  Trip  

Saturday May 9, 2015

Dana & Kenny Koogler
Tessa and Michael Lindsey



Pictures here: Knoxville Zoo Pix

    We went to Virginia on a family trip a few weeks ago. Consequently Michael missed

getting to go to the Knoxville Zoo with his Kindergarten class.  We had promised him we

would go soon after we got back to Tennessee.  We also promised Crystal and Adam we'd keep

the kids for them to have a date night.  We figured we'd combine the two things and everyone

would have a really good time.  

     Crystal and Adam brought the kids over to us just after lunch

 They got to the table at our house and ate again!   We had a pretty day to be at the zoo.

It was a little on the hot side, but we found a way to solve that problem.   We visited the bears first

and it was a neat experience. Today was Tessa's very first trip to the zoo ever.  We borrowed 

Aunt B's two kid stroller so we'd have happy kids instead of fussy ones.  Plenty of sunscreen was applied to the kiddles so they would not burn.  

Big black bear

Michael age 6 peeping at the bears.

Pawpaw holding Tessa up to see the bears.  She liked them!

   Next we went round to see elephants, water bucks, camels and giraffes.

A dromedary or one hump camel. 

Tessa Ressa checking out the camels. She liked them and burst out laughing when she saw them.

   We went in the Safari cafe and had something cold to drink and popsicles.  Tessa cannot say 

Popsicle, but they are "Pockas" .   

Michael has finished his popsicle off.

Cheese!  Tessa smiles a pokka smile for the camera.  She offered me a bite and when I took it she fussed at me!

     Next we dealt with the heat by going to the splash area.  We'd all get good and wet and play in the water so the rest of the day would be comfortable.  The sooner you do this on a hot day the more fun the zoo trip is during Summer!  It was so much fun.

Michael runs and splashes and makes friends with other kids.

Tessa plays with the other kids and splashes.  She tried to drink the water. slurrp! Ah!

Kids having fun in the splash area at the zoo.  Great way to cool off.

Lions were some of the big cats we saw!

    We saw a ton of animals, birds, and reptiles!

Michael's favorite part was the snake house.   He tried to catch a snake at the zoo. It was a harmless 

gray rat snake he saw darting across the sidewalk.

River otters showing off and swimming for the kids to see.

     We had to stop at the play land after the snake house. We hiked the nature trail.

We saw squirrels and birds. Tessa and Michael both liked the gorillas a lot.

We had to go in the store and get a toy for each kid. 

       Michael of course got a cobra snake. Tessa wanted a bracelet.

We went home and they were napping in the car on the way home.  They played a little while 

at home outside on the swing set.  They ate supper.  We were in bed and asleep by 8:30pm.

We were a tired bunch and had to rest so we'd be fit to go to church on Sunday!

We were all so tired we went to bed dirty. Baths had to wait until Sunday morning.