"It's a Moose!" and other stories from the Reston Zoo

I had heard great things about the Reston Zoo for a while, but it is much smaller than the National Zoo and does have an admission charge, so I put off going. We finally decided to go a few days before Natalie's birthday. Lucky us, Natalie was still under 2 and therefore still free. Though even if we had paid for a ticket for her I wouldn't have regretted it - we had so much fun! It was a cooler day and there were literally only two other families there. We pretty much had the run of the place and got to see everything up close for as long as we wanted.
The best part about the Reston Zoo is the wagon ride. They take you around to see all the animals that just roam a big field and the animals come right up to the wagon where you can pet and feed them. Cool, right? Natalie wasn't nervous at all about the huge animals coming up to us. I, on the other hand, got a bit nervous when a big llama tried to stick its head into Isla's car seat. I don't think so, llama. I was all over that.

As the Watusi (the big African bull below) started walking over, Natalie stood up on the bench, pointed and yelled, "It's a moose!" It was hilarious. Everyone on the wagon busted up laughing and Natalie was a little confused as to what was so funny. Needless to say, she had a great time.

They also have a neat aviary where you can go in and feed the birds with little sticks of bird seed. Natalie was totally unphased at first, even with a few birds landing on her arms, but eventually it got to be a little too much for her and she passed off the bird seed to Dad.

Isla spent the entire time bundled up in her carseat and was happy as could be all snug and warm. When I pulled back the blankets to make sure she wasn't getting too hot, this is the face she pulled. "Don't bug me, Mom."