Kat has been wanting to go to the zoo since she got back home. We had a membership but never really had an opportunity to go. A day at the zoo is a long and tiring day, but it is worth the trip.
Holly dressed up as a ladybug so she could easily blend in with the other wild animals. I renewed my yearly membership this time with Isabel and Marylee, and we headed to Boo @ The Zoo.
They do a Scavenger Hunt, which sort of forces you to see all of the zoo, so we climbed up to the top passes the Elephants to the Lions, which fit our first clue. Elephants are one of Kat's favorite animals.
The day was hot and the Elephants were staying cool splashing some water. Here Holly is making her Elephant sound. Not the most accurate sounding, but she gets kudos for trying.
Here are some wild turkeys escaping into the Elephant pin. They were
gibble gobbling there way, to find some new food, crazy little creatures, aren't very attractive.
This is the
Meerkat enclosure, one of Joel's favorite exhibits. He is always calling Holly his little
Meerkat, the way she pops up and pokes her head out or over things. Especially now that she is so into climbing into boxes.
One of the things he liked so much about the
Meerkat habitat was that there was a little tunnel, only big enough for the littlest of visitors that led to a window inside the enclosure, so that once through, Our little
Meerkat would emerge with her brethren.
We were afraid that Holly wouldn't go into the tunnel, but our worries were fall from true, they turned into, how will we convince her to come back out. She loved it, and ran back and forth and played
smooshy face with the
Meerkats.
Next we were off to see the Giraffes, we remembered from last year that these were Miriam's favorites, so thought that Holly might like them to. They are easy to see, and somewhat animated.
But rather, I think she loved the Gibbons. We watched them swing through the trees for ages. it was a nice shady area to watch, and she was riding on my shoulders like a little monkey herself, and thought they were so cool.
Kat started to talk to the Gibbons, making a
hooing sound, a Gibbon call and they all came over to us and started to sing and talk to each other, and then Kat got reprimanded by one of the Zoo Keepers for calling to them.
The Chimps were pretty fun too, there enclosure looked like a giant playground for 6 foot toddlers. It was a lot of fun, and kinda scary, one when running and picked up a barrel of some type and through it, we only heard the crash.
We think the heat was agitating them, and later when we saw them the zoo keeper was hosing them off. They seemed to really be enjoying that. Another of our clue's lead us here.
The Giant Tortoise habitat. These were one of Holly's favorites, I think she recognized they were like giant mac's (My Sister's Turtle that we are babysitting) We were looking down the enclosure from above and had to make our way around.
We were nearing the kids part of the zoo and there was this little river with stepping stones and pretty play rocks, for the older ladybugs, our little ladybug certainly wanted to cool of int he inviting river too.
Like all the zoo animals, who wouldn't want to play in the water, but Papa bear made sure she stayed by his side and didn't get all wet. She wasn't happy about it, but soon was distracted by more fun things to explore.
Soon she was caught in a giant spider's web. What was a ladybug to do. It was so fun and shiny and she just wanted to play, it was simply irresistible. I guess its that easy to get ensnared.
Luckily she had a
Tanta Kat to rescue her. It was time for a Snack, and worn from the long afternoon and all of the walking she decided to take a break in front of the Otter tank.
Smootchy! She is a cuddly lady bug, trapped by her
Tanta Kat now, rather then a giant spider, pour thing, always confined by one thing or another.
Alas, she was able to escape and finish up her snack in piece. I took a break and finally ate my Sandwich from Subway. We all picked up sandwiches on the way, but Joel and Kat were able eat there in the car.
It was fun to see all of the other kids in there costumes and Holy was very intrigued by them all, more then the animals themselves I think, because a lot of the animals she wasn't able to see very well.
While she was playing in the kids area her and daddy found a really fun slide. She climbed all the way around to the back and up the stairs and then down the slide, but it wasn't very slippery and half way down she stopped.
Instead of climbing back down she turned and tried to make her way back up. Then she hit her head. Daddy had to climb up and get her. She wasn't very happy, but after a minute or two they found Mommy and she got her big hug and kiss and a snack and then she was all better.
Ready to climb and play some more. She found the sand box, and buried deep beneath the sand was a giant crocodile. I didn't know they lived in the sand, perhaps it was a desert with bones from a once deep ocean.
An ocean like this one...
Hmmm I wonder in the deep dark blue what lurks in these waters. Just an innocent lady bug, not a worry on her mind.
Da dum,
da dum... Its a giant Alligator! its hard to see, but you can see right behind Holly he is floating, as if scouting for his lunch, it was neat to see him both above and underneath the water.
I don;t think she even realized she was being stalked by an alligator, the pour little lady bug was so good at putting her little bug life in peril. But she narrowly escaped being being eaten with all her parts in tact.
Then she found her way to the petting zoo. I think it had been a long day for the animals so many of them were inside there private barn areas eating, you could look at them and you could reach over the door to pet them, but Holly wasn't into that.
There was one goat laying down and several kids brushing him, we peeped in but she wasn't that interested. Across from the barn were these other sheep hanging around on the rocks, so we took a moment to go and visit them too.
After that we needed to take a break from the sun and heat and headed into the bug room, Holly fit right in. She had a lot of fun spinning this giant information wheel and looking at the pictures.
We got the chance to face a real life Spider, a Tarantula. But I think my favorite bug exhibit was the "Walking Sticks" For a while I didn't even know what was in the enclosure at first.
Then I saw these skinny little sticks with legs and arms, they were alive. It was so cool. But my favorite bug in the bug room was the little one I found rolling around on the floor.
On the way back to the entrance to claim our loot we went back through the kids museum and found the bottom side of the Tortoise house. Little miss Holly was making the cutest
pouty expression here.
But then she ran up to the Turtles so excited. There were a few inside, and Holly ran to make
smooshy faces for them. They stretched out there long necks to say hello.
Then wondering around I found another turtle, a
Tanta turtle. She was shy at first hiding her head in her shell, but it didn't take long before she reached for the sun.
And then she was ready to stretch and turn and look around at the bright world.
Tanta Turtle even made friends with a little lady bug. She liked the world outside her shell so much she decided to come right out.
Well the little lady bug thought that
Tanta Turtle had looked so cosy inside her home, her shell that she would need to check it out, that is one very curious lady bug.
So curious she decided that she would try to take over the shell herself. She
creeped and crawled and found her way through from one end right over to the other.
But my little lady bug decided that she would rather fly and be free then be confined by life in a shell, and she left her new home behind to flit and fly away.
Here are her wings, they were really cute, but held on by a tiny piece of Velcro, and an active lady bug needs something much sturdier then that when she runs and plays.
Here
Tanta Kat and Holly are riding away into the distance on a Wild Turtle, finding our way back up to the main entrance. We walked out way back up the long hill.
We passed the bird enclosure where we passed three Macaws earlier when we looked at them they were prunning each other so they all looked like headless birds, but later int he day they were enjoying the sun.
After we got our goodie bag and a cool fireman's hat we headed over to the area of the zoo with the rides. There was a line for the train, so Holly and Daddy played while we waited.
She was such a happy camper, by then it was late in the afternoon and the wind had picked up so it wasn't as hot as it used to be and she was having a fun time running around while Tanta Kat waited in line.
Here our lady Bug is making friends with a Skelaton. She makes friends wherever she goes. She was very curious about the costume, we have been working on Body parts, so the bones intruged her.
I went to find the ticket booth and cash in my free ride ticket only to find out I couldn't use it because Holly was already free, but the ticket was for under 14. I had to buy tickets for both me and Kat.
So I gave the free ticket to the little boy behind me, he was about 7 and did not have a costume, so he had to pay, I figured I would save someone some money, even if it wasn't me.
Here Holly is chewing on my sun glasses, she was trying to put them on at first, I kept trying to get a picture, but my flash makes the camera so slow. She looked so cute when they were on, it was like giant bug eyes.
Alas she snapped them, its the third pair of sun glasses she has broken, she even broke her Daddy's regular glasses on accident, But this week he glued then back in place, it was the noise piece where it connects to the lense.
Here is Holly on Tanta Kat's lap, she was clapping and asking us to sing to her, so we sang open shut them, and when your happy and you know it. Both to her while we waited for everyone to board, the kid in front of us loved it.
This is one of the many views down from the train into the Holly loved the train ride. She clapped and shouted with glee, the wind was blowing in her hair and she was so happy.
This is a view along the side of our train, we took this picture especially for Opa, you can't see the engine very good, but I think its a neat picture giving you the feeling that you are on the train with us.
At the end of the ride we took a picture of the engine. The ride wasn't too long, but it made two loops across from one side of the park to other along the top. We got to look down into several enclosures, we saw a bear and some deers.
Of course, no day out with the family would be complete with the capstone shot of the Holly and the Daddy passed out and exahusted in the back seat on our way home. These are some of my favorite shots.
We met Sarah and Isabel at the park this week. We had plans to go to listen to spooky stories at the library, but we had some time to kill before the start of the event.
It was cold and windy at the park, so I decided to bring Holly's lion costume last year and see if it fit her. last year she was so hot in it, she could barely wear it for more then a few minutes.
Sarah didn't like her other costume (A Fairy) so Isabel dressed her up in the most adorable Pumpkin Outfit. She looked like a little pumpkin and the color really suited her.
Holly was such a sweet little lion, running all over the place happy to be out of the car, and a few times she even growled. At first Sarah didn't know what to make of her.
She wasn't quite sure it was really Holly under all of that fur. At one point she thought maybe she was a doggie, she was tentative and slow to approach.
But then she saw her face close up and started to laugh hysterically, she recognized her friend hidden beneath the fur and thought it was so funny she was hiding in there, it was so cute.
I loved her little tale swishing as she ran through the park. She was particularly into the riding toys on this day, but also it was easier to get a now blurry picture when she was actually sitting somewhat still.
The other kids in the park thought she was so adorable, this little guy followed her around for a while telling his dad, look, look, there is a lion climbing with me. It was so cute.
She practically leaped off of the slide she was so excited. It was hard to get a full picture of her, so a gave her a cuddle and asked Isabel to get one. I tried to get the girls together, but they were too impatient.
Here she is exploring Isabel's bag, she can dump something out like this in the wink of an eye. It is so cute seeing a little lion attack the bag. Hungry perhaps, looking for a snack.
Here is Sarah riding on the Train. She is really good at going backwards, it is so cute. I love her little outfit, the two of them had so much fun playing together at the park, and with the wind they both stayed warm.
They took turns playing with the train and the car. Here Sarah is looking back making sure that it is still Holly in the Lion Suit. She kept having to reassure herself. I am not sure she likes the idea of dress-up yet.
Here the little lion is trying to scale slide mountain, but she was declawed and wasn't getting very far with her slippery paws.
So she was back onto something else to play with. Isabel was getting cold and wanted to head over to the library, but I knew that Holly had a lot of energy still to run out.
So we stayed a little longer, having a quick snack, she sets her sights on the next big adventure. She likes the car, but perhaps something better is opening up?
Like the Swing? Her all time favorite thing to do at the park. That was my queue that she was somewhat ready to settle down. So I let her swing for a bit, and then we headed out.
She was toasty in her costume, and didn't mind the wind at all, in fact she really liked it. But Mommy didn't have a jacket so it was pretty chilly. It was nice to be out of the house though.
It was starting to near dusk and she was looking up at the sunset, there were clouds in the sky, and the sky was changing color. She is starting to lean back in the swing. Which is great for learning to push herself when she is older.
Isabel thought that this costume really suited Holly, fit her coloring and her personality. I think she is right. i still like her others, but I am glad that she was still small enough to wear this one, again this year, if only for one chilly evening, before the heat returned.
Posts
