Nashville Zoo

For our family vacation we went town to Crossville, TN where we stayed at my parents' timeshare. I have been going to Crossville since I can remember (my parents bought the timeshare when I was like 2) and now my parents bought their own condo so they are there a lot! The drive takes about 6 hours from Indy which we broke up into two days. First we drove to Franklin, KY where we had two adjoining hotel rooms. Ella, Matthew and myself in one room and Laney and Jason in the other. To say it went perfectly is an understatement. I was shocked how well this all worked out! The girls played in the hot tub before going to bed (in attempt to wear them out) and when Matthew got up at 2 am to eat, Ella didn't even move a muscle.

We then woke up the next day and drove 45 minutes to the Nashville Zoo. The last time we were at this zoo, Ella was about 9 months old and for a 9 month old, she loved it. Her favorite exhibit then (and now) was the meerkats, which cracks me up. Meerkats..really?

If you haven't been to the Nashville Zoo, add this one to your list. It's one of those zoos that you can cover in a day or less, which I really like. Growing up in Cincinnati, the zoo was so big that you just couldn't see everything in a day. But Nashville you can (not to say we saw the whole zoo...we were worn out, but we could have). We didn't take a ton of pics but here are a few to share.

The infamous Meerkats

This was the play set that was at the zoo.
It was awesome and kept the girls well entertained while
I fed Matthew.

I love this sign!

In the tree house



Jason crawled through the lizard with the girls.
They were all having such fun until both girls
stood up and bonked their heads on the inside
of the lizards' mouth. It was rather comical to see the girls
go from such happy sounds to crying within less than a second.
Nothing a daddy's hug can't cure!

Ella and the stork
A mom next to us was telling her daughter the myth of
the stork delivering babies to their moms and dads.
The next thing Ella asks me "can you tell me about storks
and how they get babies out of your belly."
I guess my answer led her to this expression.

At the bird exhibit you can actually feed the birds.
The girls loved it!
When we were there a few years ago a bird landed on Jason's head.

At the petting zoo



Up close and personal

I loved this covering

After a few hours at the zoo, we were back in the car for the remaining two hour drive to my parents' place.