The Zoo

Well it has been a while since I've been to the zoo, but my neighbor convinced me to tag along. And what a perfect day to go! It was busy since most of the kids are on school break, but the weather couldn't have been better. And before you say anything....yes both my girls and myself wore pink...completely by accident. =] We all had a great time and for the most part, all the kids were good. Fun pictures to share! The first one is how my girls traveled the zoo most of the time. My oldest wasn't feeling great, so she got to sit on top of the stroller. It worked just fine. The Elephants were out and eating! My daughter and her friend love to see the elephants. Here are my girls checking them out. Oh and the Rhinos were out, but the little cave was crowded with kids that I didn't get a good picture of them. What's a Zoo without monkeys! I swear that 75% of the animals at this zoo are monkeys, but that's ok, my daughter LOVES to see monkeys. The picture below shows a mom and her baby monkey (on her belly). After I took the picture the baby monkey was swinging all over the place. And we were able to see 2 black bears. The last few times we've gone to the zoo, the bears have been taking naps or just hiding, so it was nice to see them. I still miss our polar bear.

Oh, and I also missed the Red Panda. I don't know why, but it's one my favorite animals at the zoo. I couldn't find it in the trees or in it's little house near the penguins, so instead I took a pictures of the board that has all the info on the red panda. lol. My friend thought I was crazy. =] The giraffe's are always out and looking good. Still amazes me how tall they get.

Did you know that they have a carousel at the zoo now? It was being built the last time I was there. They really are making some nice improvements to the zoo. Anyway, the carousel was cute. We were at the end of the line, so we had slim pickin' for which animal to ride. BUT my daughter found the eagle and jumped on. Right in front of her I was able to put my other daughter on the black bear. (If you look closely in the 2nd photo, you'll see my other daughter in the background lol.) My 4 yr old has always LOVED carousels. This was my baby's first experience. At first she did great, but towards the end she was ready to get off and was begging for me to hold her.

How many of you venture into the smelly bug/reptile house? I usually avoid it cause I can not stand the smell, but then I realized that you have to experience it at least once, and my daughters have never been in there. Soo stinky, but then you get used to it. I forgot how many animals they put in there. Had to be at least 50 different kinds of snakes. And I forgot about the bug box, where they have pinned MANY different varieties of butterflies, spiders, and other bugs. They not only showed the variety in colors but SIZE. Wow, I do not like bugs and some of those cockroaches were massive. *shudder* But the turtles were really cool, and the crocodiles. (side note: the albino alligator is no longer at the zoo) On the way out, we were going to take the train ride, but the line was SO LONG. We'll save those tickets for the next time we come, which I hope will be before the snow falls again.

The last couple of pictures are on the bronze statues they have around the park! The kids LOVED these. We found the rhino, the tigers, and the gorilla. On the rhino is my daughter with her two best friends from our neighborhood.