Our second day in Tyler, we swam in the hotel pool and then visited the zoo.

I love watching Carter jump and swim at the pool, he’s such a fish!

The Tyler zoo was was a lot bigger and nicer than I expected. They had lions and tigers, elephants, giraffs, and all the other big animals that large zoos have. The animal enclosures were very natural-looking and the walkways were covered with a canopy of lavender — it was really pretty.

We saw them feed one of the rinos up close and personal!

This is a really deceptive photo of our bird-feeding experience! The kids tried forever to get birds to nibble on their sticks, but this was the only time they could get any takers and the birds all flew off shortly after the photo.

After the zoo we headed to Brookshire’s corporate headquarters where they have a huge playground and wildlife museum. I was too in-awe to take any photos inside the museum — it was full of hundreds of taxidermied animals — but I did get a couple of photos on the playground.