Claire Is An Animal Whisperer.

On Weds Claire and I ventured out to the zoo. Mind you, we only went because it was free! It was perfect weather, so I was nervous the zoo would be beyond crowded. When we got into Salt Lake, it was snowing. And raining. And it was windy. Being the award-winning Mother I am, I dressed Claire in a T, light sweater, and barely managed to grab her boots before we ran out the door. Luckily, Claire had a little hooded vest under one of the seats in the car. I think I sat in the car for a few minutes debating whether or not we should just drive back home.

After being in the car for an hour, Claire was grumpy and restless, so I decided to brave the weather and see some animals! I'm so glad we did! It was by far one of my favorite zoo excursions with her and we pretty much had the whole zoo to ourselves! Most of the exhibits even had a keeper there feeding, or just talking with us. We were sad Ross had to work and couldn't join us.

Claire's getting older and more observant. She loves to point at things and yell "Uh" to get my attention and make sure I see whatever she's fascinated by, too. She also LOVES our stupid cat. This poor cat spends the majority of the day running away as Claire crawls after her as fast as she can, all while yelling and laughing hysterically. It's pretty funny to watch. Claire can also say Belle's name and says it whenever she sees the cat. I figured with Claire's new obsession for poor Belle, she would love the zoo. She's been maybe 4 or 5 times in the past, but didn't really care about the animals. I'm not sure what it is about Claire and animals, but every time we've taken Claire to the zoo, whatever animal we're checking out comes right up to Claire. This last visit was no different.

It was pretty adorable. We first went and saw the gorillas. I took Claire out of the stroller and let her stand, holding on to the ledge so she could get a good view. The gorilla was playing with his box, and then all of a sudden came and just sat down right in front of Claire! Most of the animals did similar things, coming up to Claire and running in front of her. My favorite was when we went to see the tiger. He was doing laps around the exhibit, passing in front of the fence where we were standing. After a lap or two, he came up to Claire and stopped. Then he growled at her. Claire had no reaction and stared him down. It was pretty funny, but I am grateful for that fence. Claire might have been a tasty snack!

Claire was such a trooper and only cried when I'd put her back in the stroller to go see other animals. She's a tough one! I'm so grateful to have grown up in Oregon where you go on with your plans no matter the weather. We would have missed out on a fun afternoon together. It's a lot harder taking pictures without Ross there, so I didn't get very many.