Independence Day at the Zoo

When I say Independence Day, I'm not talking about July 4th, I'm talking about the first outing that we took Ben on where he has shown more independence than we've ever seen before.   Ben seems to love pretty much all animals, so Grandma Jean, Jill & I all took Ben to a local petting zoo recently.   Ben really got into it..

First he bonded with a horse... or maybe the horse bonded with Ben. 
Not sure...

They may call this a 'petting' zoo, but they make it pretty darn hard to actually pet these animals.  Of course Ben quickly figures out a way to pet them anyway.

Ben was anxious to go see what other animals were around for him to pet, so off he went.

No need to wait for Mommy & Daddy anymore!  He's got the ability to take off on his own now!

I wonder where he's headed now...

Yes, that's Mommy & Grandma way back there.  I had to run to catch up to the little bugger!

After walking around for a while we all sat and had some italian ices.  But not Ben!  He was still on a mission of hunting for some of the other interesting animals that were around.

But then he would come back for another spoonfull (or two) of cherry italian ice...

 

After getting fed himself, Ben decided that it was time that he fed some of the animals.  He watched a little girl give some leaves to a goat and two seconds later Ben was searching for leaves and feeding the goats too!

Its really amazing..this little kid turns one and his development has just taken off exponentially.  He's doing things that we never expected him to do at this age.  I think Jill & I had just a much fun watching Ben as he did feeding the goats.   

So what does one do after one gets tired of feeding goats? 

Well, play in the water fountain!  What else!!

And then what?  Well did you know that Ben was old enough to push his own stroller now?  He certainly thinks so....

Then we spotted a playground nearby and had some fun there too. 

Slides are just so much fun!

We all really enjoyed our first Independence Day.  But now I'm thinking pretty much every day is going to be Independence Day from now on.