Featured Image Credit: Chicago Zoological Society
When 12-year-old Kristi Flury took a trip to the Brookfield Zoo with her mother on Thursday, August 3, she was looking forward to the 1 p.m. dolphin show. Little did Kristi know, she was about to be surprised by someone very special to her.
During the Dolphins in Action show, Kristi and her mother were chosen from the audience to greet and touch a dolphin. She was then surprised to also be greeted by her father, Captain Josh Flury of the U.S. Army Reserves, who has been in Kuwait on a 10-month deployment. He came home a few weeks early to surprise his daughter.
Like a scene from a movie, she ran up to her father and jumped into his arms. Watch this emotional moment below, and try not to cry!
“At first when I looked at him I thought I was in a dream and that I was going to wake up soon,” Kristi Flury said.
April Flury contacted the zoo at the end of June and worked with Brookfield Zoo staff for weeks to keep the whole thing a secret.
“At first coming out here I was a real nervous, but as soon as I saw her everybody else disappeared,” Josh Flury said.