North Carolina Zoo

A member of our ward had a bunch of free tickets to the zoo and we were lucky enough to get some of them. This zoo is HUGE!! I'm used to the Hogle Zoo in SLC which doesn't even begin to compare. They have a North American side and an African side that divides it up. We started on the African side and began with all of our church friends, but by the time we left here to go to the other side we were all split up. Even Gage split from us. I wanted him to come with us, but I knew he REALLY wanted to hang out with his friends so I decided to give him a little independence and go with another family. We've come to such a hard time in his life for me. I want to still watch him and protect him every minute, but I realize that I also need to start letting go a little at a time and allow him some independence. Sooo hard!! Eliza realized Gage was gone when we went to get on the tram to go to the other side and she was sooo concerned. She is often not very nice to Gage so I decided to play with her a little bit and pretend he was lost to see how she reacted. I was relieved to see that she was upset by it. This is how it went:

Eliza: Mom, where's Gage?!
Me: I don't know.
Eliza: We have to find him, he's missing.
Me: But you don't even like Gage sometimes. I (I know, not the nicest thing to say, but she really isn't very nice to him sometimes.)Eliza: Yes, I do! I love him.
Me: Oh good, well we better find him then.
Eliza: We better draw some pictures of him to put up and write Gage is missing.

It was sooo cute! I loved that she wanted to make pictures of him to put up. After that I told her the truth, that he was with friends. She was quite relieved. I am so thankful that our kids love and care about each other and look out for one another.

Our happy family. Well most of us at least. Eliza sure looks grumpy about something.

Gage with his friends Ethan Adams and Matthew Whitaker.

Eliza and her friend Raelyn Long.












Grumpy again! It was a really hot day and she wanted to sit on this buffalo, but it was WAY to hot.


We had an amazing time at this zoo! I hope we get to come back again someday.