BirthDAY Fun at the Jacksonville Zoo!

While we celebrated with Liam’s 5th birthday party the weekend before the BIG day, we still wanted to make his actual birthDAY special. So, we packed the boys up & headed to my dad & stepmom’s in Jacksonville for the weekend. We spent his 5th birthday at the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens, and we all enjoyed it so much! I have to say that we’ve been to the zoos in our immediate area fairly recently, but this one takes the cake {total pun intended}.

The whole park was absolutely beautiful — the grounds & all the scenery, as well as the animals, of course. I loved that the animals had enormous free areas to be in, and yet, we could still see them so up close. Also, given the extreme Florida temps, there was an abundance of shade to keep us cool, plus fabulous “cool spots” throughout. These were actually air conditioned viewing areas….can we say awesome?!?! There is also a super cute splash pad for the kiddos. We didn’t get a chance to do that on this trip, but we’ll definitely be back!

They have a train that runs all along the perimeter of the park with a stop at the entrance of the park and another at the back. Once you buy your ticket, you can literally ride around all day. So fun! This was one of Liam’s favorite parts of the day. We rode it 3 times 🙂

Sitting on the train with his Papa ❤

Checking out the birds & duckies…

There was bamboo all over the zoo & the guide on the train told us that it was used for both shade and a sound barrier to the animals from the main road that the zoo sits on. I thought that was pretty neat!

Peek-a-Boo!

There were so many interesting sights all throughout the zoo. This was the Tiger Skywalk.  The tigers can actually walk across those bridges from their enclosures. So cool!

This waterfall in the tigers area was so majestic to walk into & see, and they were awesome to sit & watch! They are such big cats & so beautiful.

On our way out, we caught one of them dropping down from the skywalk & grabbing a snack. It was crazy to be so close to him & he totally didn’t care we were there 😉

A snapshot of some of the gardens area. It’s hard to see, but some of the trees in the distance are blue!

Flamingos!

More of the bamboo, and I loved this bridge…another example of how beautiful this zoo is!

Hanging out in one of the aviaries & feeding these lovelies some sweet nectar ❤

Squirrel Monkey….

Chimpanzees ….the one over by the wall was totally lounging while snacking. There was a sweet baby in the mix, too, but it’s hard to see in this pic.

Giraffes!! — These are my favorite ❤ …Liam giggled because he saw one of them pee & while we watched them eat, he couldn’t believe how big their tongues were 🙂

The one on the far right of this pic below is one of the two babes they have there right now ❤

Just hanging around! 🙂

Lions! …they were napping.

I spy a gator…..

These two otters were hilarious! They wouldn’t stop rolling around & playing. So hard to grab a pic of them.

Warthogs…

For those of you who also watch ‘Jessie‘ on the Disney Channel, you will appreciate our excitement over seeing ‘Mrs. Kipling‘. hahaha!

Family group pic …

And, of course, what birthday would be complete without cake? He requested an ice cream cake…

We had the best day with our little man at the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens to ring in his 5th birthday! Definitely made some great memories! ❤ ….and, I still cannot believe our little baby boy is FIVE!! Facebook keeps showing me flashback memories from 5 years ago of all of these pics from his 1st weeks home & it’s totally tugging at my heartstrings. Don’t ya love it?!?!

Until next time, friends,