GO. LEFT.

We thought we'd do one last fun family thing this summer before Travis AND SAVANNAH start school in the fall, so we packed up some food and one of our favorite families (thanks for coming salds) and went to the zoo in Omaha.  

We had been there a couple other times, but our friends the Dewhursts go there all the time and they had one piece of advice - GO LEFT.  Let me tell you, it was a game changer!  I'll explain later - here's some cute pics....that's what you want anyway. 

Here's Savannah and Eisley.  She's two and she's one of Savannah's best friends.  

Savannah's favorite thing was the Jelly Fish.  She looked at them long and hard and asked tons of questions.  

She's just the best. 

Okay, so we rented a stroller from the zoo.  It was 8 bucks for the day and well worth it!  We could have brought our own, but we figured theirs was probably just the right width and sturdiness for all the zoo exhibits so we went for it.  And yeah, she's a little big for a stroller, but we're also a little too wise to carry around a 4o pound child for half the day when her legs give out! 

DETAIL MOMENT:

About going left - When you get in to the zoo you'll want to go to the right.  I don't know why.  Everyone does.  We always did.  You see the giraffe first and some other weird african stuff - but if you go left first then you spend most of the day going down hill and you get to see all the really close together stuff (the cats, monkeys, bears) before you get too tired and hot.  So we did this order and it was PERFECT:

Bears, Gorilla house, lunch break (brought our own food in), Cat house, Rhinos, then biiiiig hike up a biiiig hill (the only hard part), Giraffe, 

Then we ended the day inside at the Aquarium, Jungle, and Swamp.  We skipped the Atrium, butterfly deal, and the dessert dome all together and were fine.  

Also, they have all these water mister things everywhere that get you just a little wet.  That was a nice deal. 

Total time: 4.5 hours.  Total cost: $27 admission plus $8 stroller.  

The polar bear was my favorite.  I love watching it swim.  And by afternoon it wasn't swimming anymore so good thing we went left! 

Here's another highlight for me - watching Travis and Savannah enjoy everything so much!  One example, Travis took her across this rope bridge in the jungle and he was so pumped about it and she was really nervous so when they got done they both had huge smiles and high fives coming at me!  Doing things with the two of them really is more fun.