There’s no doubt that Dean’s mom, who is lovingly known as “Mum-mum” in our family, loves her grandkids… all 18 (almost 19) of them. Every now and again, she plans big family outings where she takes all the kids (and sometimes us parents) along for some fun.
This past week, she took everyone to Bright’s Zoo in Limestone, TN. Bright’s Zoo is a small, private owned zoo here in East Tennessee. It used to be a race horse farm, but over the years, it’s slowly turned into a zoo. The owner’s wife met us at the gate to go over the zoo rules with us, and she gave us a bit of background on the zoo.
She said she had always wanted a monkey and her husband eventually bought her one. After that it was a zebra, and from there, their “home zoo” started growing and eventually turned into a big zoo. They have a variety of exotic animals at the zoo including some rare and endangered species. They also raise animals to sell to other zoos.
Because we’re such a large group, we classify as a school group most times when we go places so we got our name on the welcome sign! LOL!
The kids loved petting the feret!
There was a lot of walking to see the different animals. Thank goodness two of my sisters-in-law brought wagons to pull the little ones in. Unfortunately for them, I think their kids didn’t end up riding in them all that often!
Little cousins, checking out the flamingos.
The kids loved looking at the zoo animals, but I think they liked this water sprayer even better. I told Mum-mum that she needed one of these at her house for our Sunday lunches, and I think she’s gonna make it happen. Maybe she won’t tell Pop-pop it was my idea! 😉
The kids got to feed the girraffs while we were there. This was an exciting part of the day for them. They hold a carrot out and the girraff wraps his or her tongue around the carrot and takes it out of their hand to eat it. It was fun for them to be that close to them.
They also fed the goats which was fun even though it was a slobbery mess!
Posing for a picture with this giant gorrilla. I wonder if Judah realized he was picking it’s nose when this photo was geing taken? LOL!
So yes… Mum-mum loves her grandkids, and they definitely love her! Fun times and more memories made. If you’re in the area and looking for something fun to do with your family for the day, I’d highly recommend stopping in at Bright’s Zoo for a few hours of fun!
xo, Meagan