My first Father’s Day, and a chance to think about how lucky I am to have the sweetest little girl in the world. I guess every dad says that about their children. But with a cute smile and happy disposition, my little girl has been a joy for the past 10 months. I am still trying to learn my way through parenting and being a father and every day is a new adventure. So, Father’s Day should be as well and Lisa and Siena made plans for a special adventure for the day.
The day started with some wonderfully thoughtful gifts from my three girls. My favorite gift was the t-shirt that Siena and Lisa made for me; a very special keepsake for daddy. From there we headed to San Diego for Siena’s first trip to the zoo. Siena had arranged for a very special brunch at the zoo for daddy. When we arrived we headed straight for a great meal. Loaded with energy we then headed out to see the animals.
Siena’s first zoo experience was the gorillas. Very big and right on the other side of the glass. She tried to get their attention by banging on the glass (yes there are signs asking you not to do this) before daddy encouraged some other viewing ideas. The gorillas were the first of many animal sightings for Siena that day.
For Siena, the bigger the animal and the more motion the animal made, the better she could see it. Big and moving was the theme of the day. We wandered most of the park and some of Siena’s highlights were:
- The polar bear exhibit. Lots of fun things to do and see. A bear that was bigger than both of us when Siena sat on my shoulders. This might have been her favorite animal of the day and one of them woke from a nap and came to the glass to see us while we were there.
- For Siena the elephants we intriguing and they are housed in an awesome new exhibit at the zoo called the Elephant Odyssey. The new exhibit area is really well done and provides a great viewing area for the many elephants the zoo has.
- Siena woke from her nap at the giraffes. Quite a sight when someone first wakes up. She probably thought she was still dreaming. Look way up there Siena, it’s a giraffe.
- The Rhinos were pretty big too, but they weren’t moving much. Still kind of hard to miss from a few feet away.
- We also saw flamingos, monkeys, went to the petting zoo and saw assorted other wildlife.
So much more to see on future visits as our little girl grows up. Wild Animal Park is next and I am looking forward to sharing that with Siena too. Quite a big day for everyone and a very proud day for a daddy, the daddy of a very precious little girl.
