China - Day Eleven- Visiting the Zoo and the Pool

Time for a family picture at the zoo!

We are enjoying a much more laid back schedule in Guangzhou.  Getting time for naps and "doing what we want when we want!"  Today "TOUR" was written on our itinerary.  I asked our guide, Lily what that meant and she said we could chose to tour the temples, parks or zoo.  We chose the zoo!  Riding  by van it took about 10 minutes from our hotel to get there.

It's extremely hot and humid outdoors today and sweat was rolling down Merle's face and my back.  But despite the intense heat, it was fun to experience Lucy's first visit to the zoo.  There were MANY children and parents and grandparents visiting the animals today.

Lily bought Lucy an animal balloon upon entering the zoo.  Lucy girl wasn't overly thrilled but held onto it.

The animal exhibits were intertwined among beautiful tree lined walkways.  

Lucy rode in her little red stroller and we would pick her up out of the stroller to see some of the animals.

Daddy showing Lucy the animals!

They have two pandas at this zoo which I was excited to see but they are in a "panda house" which is a glass exhibit and we could only see one and even he was hard to see  - I was a little disappointed.

Have you noticed that "Kimmy" the doll Linsey made for Lucy goes EVERYWHERE
with us!!

After our zoo fun, we happily climbed into the air conditioned van and headed back to the hotel to check out the outdoor pool.  Lucy looked adorable in her little pink bathing suit.  We had "checked out" the pool on our evening stroll last night and you can see the pool from our hotel room window.  She understood where we were going but I'm sure not what we were going to do.

Lucy Kim was a bit nervous and not sure of this whole pool thing.  Based on her expressions, I'm guessing she'd rate it a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.  We only stayed at the pool about 30 minutes and she was getting so sleepy.  We headed back to the room where we ended up waking her from an almost 3 hour nap.

Just imagine how much sensory overload this little one must be having!  All these firsts - every day multiple times a day.  From living behind orphanage walls to all of this!  Her world has soooo changed in the last week!  She's such a brave little girl!

Is she not the cutest little thing in her little pink swimsuit!!