Shanghai | Holding a Baby Tiger!!!

A few weeks ago, I had a quick two day work trip to Shanghai and so we decided to make a family vacation out of it and head to Shanghai a couple of days early and head to spend the weekend in Beijing afterwards! We had an evening flight to Shanghai that went off without a hitch! We got there around 9 and the girls both fell asleep in the taxi on the way to the hotel, which was great because we were up bright and early the next morning to head to Disney!! More Disney to come, but on the 2nd day, we headed to the Shanghai Wildlife Animal Park because I had read on another blog that there might be the opportunity to hold a baby tiger??!!?? And who could possibly say no to that opportunity - not me, that is for sure :).  We got there bright and early only to find out that the animal holding starts at 1pm so we had fun exploring for several hours beforehand (more pictures on that to come next).  But first, I am just bursting at the seams to show you these pictures, because, hello, baby tiger!! And I apologize up front for all the exclamation marks (I am looking at you, Aust!), but I mean a baby tiger encounter deserves lots of exclamation marks!!! 

Just look at the cuteness!!

Everly went first and she was sooooo brave!!! 

And slightly unsure, but that is to be expected because this is a tiger!!!

My favorite - her facial expression kills me!!

Trying to get away!

And then it was Emma's turn and while she had been nervous, watching Everly hold the tiger made her so excited!!!

Just look at the way the tiger wrapped his paw around her arm!!

One proud girl! With a baby tiger!!

Big smile!

I like that in these next pictures, she is understands that the baby tiger wants to get away, but she is like nope, you are staying right here with me.

My other favorite of Emma! Even looking at these pictures, I am like did this really happen?? Did we really get to hold a baby tiger!! Just look at his tail!

And she and the tiger were done!

And then it was my turn!! I was so excited, I could feel it running through my body (if that makes sense?).  

We were both smitten with each other.  I asked Wes repeatedly if we could take him home with us.  Emma and I were pushing pretty hard ;).

By the time it was Wes's turn, I think the tiger was over our swooning ;).  He was growling the best a baby tiger could and we were all cracking up! I took Wes's picture and we gave that little tiger right back to his rightful owner remembering that he was a tiger after all!

This picture cracks me up!!  The tiger's bottom feet!!

Oh, sweet, adorable baby tiger (born on 9/15 - just a little over one month old!) - you sure made our visit to Shanghai memorable, we won't soon forget you! This was definitely one of the favorite parts of our trip :).