The Grams Family

Today, Eli and Daddy went to Concord Mills mall together. We also went to the early church service together in the morning as the girls weren’t feeling to well, so we had quite the Daddy/Eli day. Eli put stickers in his sticker book on the way to the mall. Once we got there, the first thing Eli did was go on all the car rides. He didn’t actually ride on any, but he wanted to get in all the vehicles.

After that, we went to the aquarium. Eli asked if he could have one of the adventure hats on the counter and the attendant happily gave it to him! Next it was time to look at all the ocean life. First we saw some big fish and not long after we made it to the pool where you could touch the animals.

Eli touched two starfish. We went on to see eels, sea turtles, jellyfish, schooling fish, and more.

There were lots of fun places to walk through, especially for kids. There was a crawl space kids could go in, pop their heads up, and see fish swim all around them.

There was a large tunnel for people to walk through as sharks, rays, and other fish swam overhead, and there was a smaller tunnel for kids to walk through as smaller fish swam around them.

Eli met a little boy and girl in the kids tunnel and had a fun time pointing to fish with them.

At the end of the aquarium was a place where kids could draw and play. Eli and I played giant Connect 4 together (although we really just had fun putting the pieces where they go).

When we finished the aquarium, we headed to the Lego store, where Eli build a store out of Lego pieces. He is used to Duplo, but he did a good job with the Lego.

On the way to our next destination, Eli played on some blocks they had near some seating in the mall. Following the brief stop, we arrived at the book store where we read an animal encyclopedia as we sat on the floor together. There were animals on every page and Eli would ask Daddy what each one was. After the book store we headed to Bass Pro Shops where we went to the big fish tank. There were some big fish in the Bass Pro Shops, but it wasn’t quite as exciting as the aquarium. We looked around in Bass Pro for a while and then left to head to the Train store. Following another short stop on the car rides en route to the train store, we saw the Lionel trains. The tracks in the store were grand, and Eli loved looking for every detail from the kids playing, to the model zoo, to what every type of train was, to which of the model people were Daddy, Mommy, Eli, and Addy. There were four model sets, and we looked at all four very closely for a while.

Returning back to the rides near where we entered, Eli pretended to be an Ice Cream Truck worker and served me Ice Cream. We took one more quick walk through the aquarium, since our tickets were good all day, and walked to our car to head home.

Eli and I had a fun time this morning drawing pictures, putting them in envelopes, addressing them, stamping them with animal stamps, and delivering them to the stuffed animals in the sofa fort.

On Tuesday, May 31st, we visited the zoo as a family. This was little Addy’s first trip to the zoo, and Eli’s most exciting trip yet. We had gone to Riverbanks Zoo with Eli the past two years as well. We got there around 9:30 in the morning and did not leave until three. This time, Eli helped Daddy by the tickets. Eli’s ticket had a rhino on it. Addy’s had a tiger, Daddy’s had penguins, and Mommy’s had a flower. We started out seeing the otters while the bear was still hiding. Next we saw the lions. As Eli pointed out, there were two mommy lions and one daddy lion.

They were lying in the shade on the hot day. Eli also loved the baboons and the tiger. We were fortunate enough to see a baby flamingo chick being fed by its mother. The baby was white and captured the whole family’s interest.

The sea lion and seal training show was another highlight. The trainers fed and played with the sea lions and seals, feeding them fish treats to encourage them. The announcer provided various sea lion and seal facts.

Eli and I got our annual pictures with the Koalas right by the Komodo dragon but the Koalas were all inside this year. Unfortunately the aquarium was closed but there were still plenty of fun things to do. We went on the Kangaroo walkabout where the kangaroos and the wallabies are right in the area with you. They were shy and only a wallaby was anywhere near us, but they were fun to see nonetheless. Next, after going through the tunnel with lots of smaller animals, we saw the gorillas. They were sleepy and hot. They were taking a nap in the shade right by the building, so we got a very good look at them.

Eli was asking about seeing the giraffes almost the whole time we were there, and he got to see them next. We even got to feed them some lettuce. Eli was a little scared of their long tongue, but he eventually fed the giraffes a piece of lettuce. He was very excited about this.

Along with the giraffes we saw some ostriches, zebras, and rhinos. Eli learned that the Rhinos eat grass and hay.

Next was the highlight of the trip. A brief train ride followed by the petting zoo. Eli loved petting and brushing the goats. He also got to sit in a tractor and spotted some ducks under the tractor, but he made sure to pet and brush every single goat.

We took a brief stop to see the penguins and other birds inside.

After seeing all the animals, we had our packed lunch. Then, we went back in the zoo and walked up to the botanical gardens.

After a quick look at the beautiful plants, we saw the splash park. Eli is a little afraid of the splash park, but he did have some fun with some of the less intense water activities. We bought some water to drink to cool us down as well. The water felt very nice on our feet.

There were other fun activities such as a little house for kids and a huge tree house to walk through.

When we were done, we took the cart down the hill and made our way to the souvenir shop. On the way there, we saw the lions had moved a little and the bear had come out. We stopped to check in on him. At the souvenir shop, Eli picked out a little toy kangaroo with a joey in its pouch, and that was our day at the zoo!