Fun at the zoo!

I've been a terrible blogger, but I'm hoping to redeem myself over Spring Break this year.  We decided to do a "Staycation" and I decided to take the kids to a bunch of different places around the city (we've been to some of them before and some of them will be a first time experience for the kids).  Saturday was Day One for us and we decided to head to the zoo because the weather was supposed to beautiful and it was!  We had a GREAT day!  They've added a new area (the African forest) and the kids absolutely loved it!  We also realized that it's much more fun to go when it's 70 degree than when it's 100 degrees.

They have an indoor area with reptiles and fish.  Emily loves all the reptiles and is especially fascinated by the snakes (I was cringing the whole time and trying not to look!).  The kids got to crawl through an aquarium and both of them thought it was so much fun!  Here's Jacob taking his turn:

I had printed off the schedule of the day's events and Emily got to read it while we were in the car so that they could decide what they wanted to see and do.  Both of them said the "giraffe feeding."  I assumed that it was just going to be a chance for us to watch someone else feeding the giraffes, but I was so wrong!  As we headed over there, someone asked if we wanted a chance to feed them and directed us to a ticket booth and a side area.  They limit the number of people who get in and we were very lucky!  For both kids, this was definitely one of their favorite things.  Here's Emily waiting for her chance to feed the giraffe!

Here are a few pictures of Emily feeding the giraffe.  Jacob fed the giraffe, too (which surprised me because I didn't know if he would!), but he was too fast and I couldn't get a picture of him.

As we were leaving this area, we spotted another giraffe and both kids wanted to take their pictures with it.  They both said they wished it was a REAL giraffe!

The monkeys was another favorite for all of us.  They had these little pygmy monkeys that were super tiny.  I've never seen anything like it before, but there were really cute!  Both of my kids have always loved monkeys and after a day at the zoo seeing all of these different monkeys, they kept saying they wished we could get a "real" monkey.  I don't think that's going to happen any time soon!

There is a new African Forest exhibit at the zoo, and we loved it!  There is a section with rhinos, which Emily was really excited about because that is her school mascot.  We had seen a stuffed rhino at Cabela's a few months ago, but she was so excited to see a "real life rhino."

These huts were part of the African Forest area and both kids said they were ready to go camping!  I'm not so sure about camping in a hut.

We got to see the elephants taking a bath.  There were two baby elephants and they were so cute playing in the water!  Of course, we had to stop and take a picture with this elephant and Jacob loved being tallest for once!

I always love to get pictures of the kids with the lion water fountain.

It's amazing what a difference a year makes.  This picture was taken when we went last August.  Jacob looks so little to me!  He is growing up to be such a big boy!  Emily is looking more grown up, too, and I'm so glad we decided to grow out her bangs!

They have a big Children's Zoo area, which includes a playground and a petting zoo.  We have always started on the other side of the zoo, so this ends up being our final stop before heading home, but I think next time we go, I'm going to re-think that because the kids are always so tired at that point that they don't really get to enjoy it.

Here's Emily petting the goats, though.  This was another highlight for her.

Our last trip to the zoo was almost a year ago (August) and it's amazing to me what a difference almost a year makes.  I was surprised at the number of animals that Emily was able to name on her own and when she wasn't able to tell us right away what the animal was, she would go read the sign and tell us all about it.  She's getting so big and is quite a little reader!  Jacob asked some great questions about the animals, too.  He's getting so big, too, and is definitely not my "baby" anymore.