Chilly Winter Fun at the Zoo!

Following my cousin Catherine’s example, I took Elijah, Lexi and Tori to the zoo at the end of February (it was free!). The very last day of February was pretty warm (in the 30s at least), so we got bundled up in snow clothes and spent the afternoon at the zoo. The kids thought some parts were neat (the tiger!) and were pretty unimpressed with other things.

I thought we were in real trouble when we got to the first real animals of the day – the penguins, a kid favorite, right? – only to have all three kids look at the penguins for literally LESS THAN 5 SECONDS, and then say, “Let’s go somewhere else.” Uh oh. The penguins, I thought, were good for a few minutes at least!

Lexi and Tori's first words about this animal: It's a mini-camel!
Second words: Yuck, that animal just pooped Aunt Missy!

We got the same act for basically all the animals except the tiger and the monkeys (which were inside and scored some points with Lexi just for the fact that she could be warm and watch them).

Roar! The tiger was a favorite -
we looked at him for a good 10 minutes.Or did he look at us? Hmm.

That monkey is eating snow!

We were having having snack and hot chocolate within an hour, and I thought it was going to end up to be a pretty quick trip to the zoo after spending such little time actually looking at animals! I was pretty glad the zoo was free at that point. :)

Nummy! Hot chocolate, animals crackers, and cheese sticks!

But after our snack we found another path that lead to the petting zoo (not open, but we could see the animals) and the cutest little wooden house to play in. The kids LOVED that and we had a blast playing mailmen (we all took turns delivering our “snow letters” to the mailbox on the side of the house). Of course, just as we got to the house my camera battery died, so I only have one picture. And after that the kids kept asking me to take their picture too – they stuck their heads out the window and said cheese, they all sat on the benches in front and smiled nicely – and I only could pretend to take their picture! Guess we’ll have to go back when I’ve got a fully charged camera.

As we were walking around after snack time, Elijah wanted to carry his bag of animal crackers. No problem, except he kept dropping them. Mommy didn’t go back and get them for Elijah (he was supposed to take care of them, not me), so he would start crying when he noticed that he was missing them about a minute later. He’d have to go back and get them and start the cycle all over again. One time though Eli dropped them on the path and a zoo employee driving a cart came past. And, you guessed it, when we went back to get them they were “crunched” (as Tori said). Eli was a little upset about that, but I thought it was a pretty good lesson on taking care of your things (what a sadistic Mommy, I know). :) We had a few more animal crackers in another bag so Eli was able to have those – and not drop them at all this time.

After another hour or so of playing it really was time to go home – we were all pretty cold by that time and the wind had kicked up. Brrr. Lexi got right in the car, but Eli and Tori kept climbing on the GIANT snowbank that we had parked next too. Again, wish I had my camera, but oh well. We ended up having a fun afternoon at the zoo after all!

Pretending to be penguins in front of the penguin house!
What a fun time at the zoo!