Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium

We spent most of Thursday at the zoo and aquarium. Libby, Casey's Mom, works part-time at the aquarium. We started out at the petting zoo. Riley made himself at home quickly. He wasn't afraid at all he just walked right into the middle of the animals and would pet them and talk to them as they walked by. There were 7 and 8 year olds hugging the fence, haha! When we were waiting at the fence to go in as a new animal would walk up to Riley he'd say "hey!" and let them lick his fingers. He likes to call all animals "Gah-net" after our dog, Garnet.

After the petting zoo we went to see some turtles. You could touch their shell but we had to stay on top of Riley to be sure he didn't try to "pet" their heads:

Riley loved all of the exhibits but we just have a thing for turtles since Riley is our little Turtle!

By far Riley's favorite party of the day was seeing the giraffes and Jeremy fed one!! We also got to pet the giraffe. It's fur was much rougher than I had expected it would be because it looks so smooth.

Riley checking out the monkeys

Riley was worn out so we checked out the baby animals while he took a quick nap. We got to see a baby lion eat his lunch, a baby kangaroo being bottle fed, a baby porcupine pee all over the place, an ocelot getting bottle fed, and a baby warthog.

Of course Riley woke up for lunch...we got to eat in front of a large tank at the aquarium!

Jeremy and Riley petting the stingrays!

Jeremy feeding a stingray that almost flipped out of the tank!

Jeremy feeding another stingray some shrimp!

I wasn't sure if I would be able to pet the stingrays but I did and it was amazing! I was so glad that we all did it! They are much softer than I had imagined that they would be. When they feed they suck from the middle of their body. And when they sting they don't actually sting but they scratch you. However it hurts so badly that you think you were stung.

Riley standing up to look at the turtle standing up on the other side of the window!

Riley loved the aquarium as much if not more than the zoo. He would run around pointing at tank after tank and talking to the fish! He touched every animal that you could touch including the starfish and sea urchin...which also involved him splashing a bunch of water out of their tanks too, haha!

This one penguin would follow Riley and I as we'd walk along its tank!

We even took Riley on the water logs! On the ride we got to see some monkeys and birds that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Riley really liked the birds but didn't seem to care one way or another about the logs. He didn't show any emotions...no laughing or crying!

I'm holding on to Riley for dear life!

We were pretty wet but dried off fast in the Arizona dry air!

Next we took a boat ride and got to see some turtles, baby ducklings, gazelles, an albino kangaroo and much more!

Then we took a ride on the "choo choo"!

We saw several ostriches but Riley loved seeing the giraffes again!

Libby bought Riley this stuffed giraffe and as you can see he was WORN out from our fun day!

Later that evening Libby and Raub came over to babysit Riley and play with Lego's while Jeremy, Casey, and I went out for sushi at Nakama Sushi! It was excellent. We started out with an appetizer called Monkey-Brains, it was really stuffed mushrooms! We over-ordered though because we didn't realize the sushi rolls there are so much larger than here. One of my favorite rolls was a flaming sushi roll topped with lobster! And the ginger was white and spicier than what we get here. If I lived in Phoenix I'd spend alot of evenings at Nakama for sure!