Zoo

This weekend we took a family trip to the zoo!  We haven't been in over a year, since the last membership ran out.  We usually skip a year or two in between our zoo memberships...we get a lot of use during the year we have it, then it's nice to take a break.  This summer we are not getting our usual season passes to the nearby amusement park.  Last summer Kyle was definately too big for the kiddie rides, and this summer Jillian still isn't quite big enough for many of the big rides.  Throw Leah into the mix who can only ride the smaller kiddie rides and we have a mommy who would be extremly frustrated because I would have whiny kids no matter what part of the park I visit!  So in the interest of sanity we are waiting another year or two, at least until Jillian and Kyle can easily ride the bigger ones together while I wait with Leah.

I was anxious to get zoo passes again for two reasons.  First of all, Leah was only a baby on her previous visits, I knew she would really enjoy it now.  Second, Kyle was excited when I told him we would be getting passes.  My big boy is turning 9 years old soon, I can hardly believe it!  Today was a lot of fun for me because all 3 of the kids thoroughly enjoyed the zoo trip.  Kyle loved every exhibit we visited, looked over the map and made a request (to see snakes of course, he is a boy).  He even enjoyed playing in the large KidZoo area.  I know with the age spread between my kids I have only a few precious years where all 3 will be excited with a trip to the zoo.   I'm treasuring these few years with Leah's babyhood behind us, but still very much in the midst of childhood for both Kyle and Jillian. 

Now, onto pictures from our fun day!  Note: due to the large volume of pictures in this post I'm making a lot of them small...however you can view any of them full size by clicking on the picture.

We arrived at the zoo mid-afternoon and got our new membership all squared away.  This is just before going into the zoo, I need to poke around in my Mom's photo albums but I'm almost certain there's a picture of my sister and me at the zoo in this exact spot. 

Our first stop was the new polar bear exhibit. On our last trip this area was still closed for the big renovation, it was exciting to have polar bears (one of my favourites) to visit again. Unfortunately they didn't seem to be enjoying the heat and were hiding in the shade. Hopefully next time we get to see them swimming around.  But we did enjoy some of the other exhibits in this area, here's Leah watching the geese (we never get to see geese, good thing we saw them at the zoo!). 

There's a lot of fun things for the kids to do at the zoo besides just looking at the animals.  Kyle, Jillian and Leah just loved going through this tunnel over and over again.  At one point the 3 kids were all in the viewing window, and I overheard a passerby say "look, it's the kid exhibit" ha ha ha.

While taking a million a few pictures of the kids I noticed the nice slimming effect in the concave plexiglass of the viewing window.

 
 
 
 
I really wish my kids would come out of their shell and show a little personality for goodness sake!
 

Here's Kyle doing his seahorse impression.  My kids are funny, they make me laugh!  We had moved into the Australasia pavillion to get indoors for a break from the sun.  Lot of fun stuff to see in here...great barrier reef, jellyfish (so cool!), wallabys and other marsupials.  Kyle really enjoys reading the infomation in places like this, he's a sponge for facts.

Then we took a zoomobile ride around the zoo.  We timed this just right, it started to downpour shortly after the train ride began.  Once we had done the whole trip, the rain had stopped and everything was cooled off nicely.  Not only that, it seemed like almost everyone left the zoo during the rain...the place was practically empty!  Leah really enjoyed the train ride.  Membership includes free zoomobile rides so I think we'll be doing this almost every zoo trip.

Can you see the tiger?

How about now?

Zoom is definately my favourite camera feature, I use it all.the.time. And it especially comes in handy at the zoo when it's hot and the animals take cover in the shade.

Here's my monkeys watching the macaque monkeys. They were being quite playful.

 

I'm a sucker for walking pictures.  I take so many pictures of my kids from behind of them walking, and I especially love the ones like this with Jeff and the kids all holding hands.  And here's Kyle and Jillian in the middle of a very intense conversation.  I believe it was about sticks.
 

After seeing quite a few exhibits and taking a zoomobile ride it was time for one of my favourite places in our zoo...KidsZoo!  Warning, in this area your children are actually transformed into animals.  You'll see mine were changed into bunnies, frogs, turtles and spiders...

And last but not least we visited the farm animal area, where we let the kids do this...

Even though there was a sign that said this...

Fortunately no nipping happened.  In fact the goats were very relaxed and docile.  I highly suspect the sign is only up for legal reasons, and these goats don't actually nip.  I'm sure now that I've put this opinion into writing, I will proceed to get a finger nipped off next time we visit.

Overall we had a really fantastic afternoon at the zoo.  I'm looking forward to more visits this summer.  We only made a dent in the exhibits, still lots to see!  I was really happy to see how much Leah enjoyed herself, she was interested in all the animals, loved the train ride, and definately enjoyed the KidsZoo area.  Perfect for a 2 year old (and 5 year old, and almost-9 year old!).