Summer Day at the Zoo

Friday afternoon I took both boys to the zoo. Despite it being pretty crowded, we had a great time!

We saw a few animals on the way to the grassy lawn where we had a picnic. After we ate, Jake ran around on the grass (and made a friend who ran around with him) while Ryan played with the stroller and I relaxed on the blanket in the sunshine.
Then we went to see the elephants inside the elephant viewing area. The look on Ryan's face when he saw the mama and baby elephant eating together was priceless. I hurriedly got out my camera and was able to capture a little bit of that awe on his face.
Both boys looking at the elephants.
Jake was so happy to be at the zoo!
Ryan enjoyed his time in the stroller, but after awhile he was tired and had enough. I was smart enough to have the yamo carrier with me so he spent the second half of our time at the zoo on me.
We got to see all 3 lions out and lying in the sun!
We also saw the rhino, hippos, zebra, giraffe, monkeys, bats, sea lion, and otter. Stretch!

After 2.5 hours, we headed home, happy.

Animals versus Sandbox

This morning Jake and I woke up and we made up a game involving these cool cards that have pictures of animals on them along with their names. Then Jake asked if we could go to the zoo. Since it was a sunny day (yay!) and we had no other plans, this is what we did.

However, once we got there, instead of seeing the animals, Jake decided he only wanted to play in the sandbox. So Mike and I sat in the sun and soaked up some vitamin D and relaxed.
Fortunately, before we left we did get to see some animals. Today was Thanksgiving for the polar bears so we got to watch as they ripped into their fake turkeys and got whatever treat was inside. Pretty fun. We also said hi to some monkeys and then our little monkey wanted to go back to the sandbox.

On the way out we stopped to get on the bronze goat.

Roar!

Jake and I went to the zoo late this afternoon. It was a beautiful fall day and I was so excited to see the new exhibit, Predators of the Serengeti. Unfortunately for you, I didn't bring my camera because handling, in the afternoon, a 3-year old who is transitioning out of afternoon naps plus a camera, by myself, was just too much.

So you'll just have to trust me when I say that it was all pretty awesome. Well, except the part about Jake getting bopped on the head by some other little boy (and I was SO proud when I saw Jake about to hit the boy back, but then he decided not to, and just walked away) and when Jake was run into not once, but twice on the grassy area, through no fault of his own. There were some tears that were then made better by saying hi to the baby elephant and the starfish.

The better parts were seeing the bats (I love the bats) and actually seeing a mother/baby bat pair up close, and the lions! One of the female lions was hanging out just a few feet from the viewing glass. She was beautiful. The cheetahs were amazing, and the African wild dogs were comical. The best part was that we were there at a good time of the day and all these animals were active and moving around.

On the way home Jake and I named all the animals that we got to see. He clearly loved it. (And it was a good trick that I used to keep him from falling asleep on the ride home!)

More Zoo

We love having zoo membership.

We decided to go today and just let Jake play in the giagantic sandbox for awhile, something he's never done before! That meant Mama didn't have to do a ton of walking around, but we still got out.
After a picnic lunch on the big, grassy area, we visited some of the animals.
The polar bears were in rare form today. This one was dancing forwards and backwards, it was hilarious. The other one was playing in the water a bit.
In the mother bear den. (Yes, this is just a picture.)

Fantastic Day

After the heat wave, we wanted to get out of the house and do something fun. So we decided to go to the zoo and ride the Washington Park Zoo train. In the summer it takes a long route that has a stopping point at the Rose Gardens/Children's Playground.

After spending way too much time driving around the parking lot looking for a spot, we entered the zoo and walked to the train and luckily were the last people to get a seat on the train, meaning we had zero waiting time. Score!

Jake, as usual, was very excited. This doesn't get old.
The breeze from the open windows was refreshing and it was pretty scenery!
I rode this train/route a few times when I was younger, was fun to take Jake.
We stopped at the mid-way point and got off and walked to the playground. Jake ran around like a wild thing. We had a picnic lunch there.
The slide was his favorite thing. He only went down about 50 times.
And convinced Daddy to do it once.
There was some time with the sand.
Then we headed back to the train station.
We got lucky again!! We were again the very last ones on the train and just walked right on. It was a different engine this time. Jake and I had a conversation comparing the Thomas the Train engines with the engines that were pulling us on this track. We decided the engine was more like Thomas than Gordon :)
Happy boy.
Back to the zoo where Jake insisted on seeing the giraffe.
We totally lucked out and happened to catch both the tiger and the leopard walking around. That never happens!
And then a visit to the very cool stellar lion tank.

Then back to the car where it was exactly time for a nap.

Zoo Lights

Tonight we went to Zoo Lights at the Zoo.
It was cool to see all the animal lights.
Of course Jake immediately wanted to go on the train.
The line was super long. I think we waited for an hour. Ugh. But I think if we had tried to leave Jake would have thrown a fit about not being on the train. Luckily there were some fun lights to entertain us while waiting, like this Wizard of Oz scene.

Yay, on the train!
After the train ride Jake saw and fell madly in love with this tiger. Right before we took this picture he was hugging the tiger, and he was totally talking to him and waving at him. It was hilarious -- we had no idea that he would take such a liking to this kind of thing.
And then he saw the polar bear!! He had to hug the bear not just once, but twice. He didn't want to leave the bear, but was just staring in awe at him.
It was a fun family activity. I think we might go back again another night, since we didn't get to see all the lights, but avoid the train.

One of the cool things about this was that the vast majority of the lights were LEDs. So even though there were millions of lights, the energy impact was very low and we still got to enjoy the light displays!

Zoo!

Gramma, Jake, and I went to the zoo yesterday. Jake was saying the names of the animals we saw. The zebras were his favorite this time.

He struck this funny pose for the camera. Ninja Jake!
We wanted to see the zoo's new baby elephant, but the line was crazy long. Next time, hopefully!