We're off to see the lizard...

So I thought today would be a great day to go to the zoo. The kids had the day off school (they're doing some special testing at school), it's midweek (Thursday), and it's April, so the summer crowds wouldn't be there yet. Right?

Um, no. Not really. I forgot to factor in the end-of-school-year field trips. The place was overflowing with little kids in matching lime green and hunter orange t-shirts. And that's not even mentioning the scads of junior high and even high school kids with work sheets they were trying to fill out at each display. A few lucky groups were getting guided tours from zoo volunteers. (I eavesdropped on a few of them--they were interesting).

In spite of the crowds, and the fact that Nate had to work, we had a great time. We made it there just in time for the sea lion show. Only one of the five sea lions was out for the show, but the kids had fun watching him race around, flip his big flippers in the air, and jump out of the water to touch a ball. This was their favorite exhibit the last time we came, so I wasn't surprised that they enjoyed it.

I did something new for this visit that we've never done before. I made the kids do some work. They each had to choose one type of animal, and then answer questions about it on a little worksheet I'd made up. It asked things like the animal's habitat, diet, size, enemies--just basic information like that. I wanted to get them a little more interested in what they were seeing, and maybe help them learn a bit more.

I think it worked. They had fun filling out their sheets. Sean chose sea lions. He found out a lot of his information from the show. Okay, it was mostly Bethany who collected it--she even approached one of the zookeepers to ask about the last fact we were missing. Sean was too busy eating fruit snacks and pretzle sticks. It's a bit above his head anyway, but I didn't want to shut him out. Meagan chose lions and Bethany chose tigers. I did one on orangutans. I even learned something new. I never knew before that orangutans are the only primates that don't live in groups. Their fruit trees are too few and far between to support a group.

I plan to have them do this every time we go to the zoo now. Since we have a membership, we'll go several times in the year. Each sheet will have a picture attached of the animal we saw at the zoo, one that we took while we were there. I'm going to put them all together in a book, so they'll have a sort of memorabilia book of all our zoo visits.

The first four pictures are the ones that will go in our zoo book.

Lions....

...and tigers...

...and sea lions? There were bears at the zoo, but we didn't see them today. Too much to see, too little energy on the kiddos' part.

There's a baby in the white sheet. It was just like a toddler, playing in that sheet. It would hide in it, drag it, and even wore it like a cape. It was so cute.

Bethany, Meagan and Sean at our picnic lunch....that happened about 30 minutes after getting to the zoo. I hadn't planned on eating at 11:00, but they were soooo hungry. (Read: they were driving me crazy.) Sean kept trying to yank the lunch box out of the bottom of the stroller. He wouldn't have been so hungry if he'd just eaten his breakfast. Grumble, grumble.

I wish I'd gotten a video clip of these giraffes. They were licking each other.

What's a trip to the zoo without a ride on the carousel? Bethany loves riding this black panther. It reminds her of Baby Jaguar on Diego.

Sean and Meagan on their mounts. Meagan kept patting hers and telling it that it was a good camel.

I see peacocks wandering loose all over the zoo, but this is the first one I've seen with its tail feather up and on display. It was realy cool.

I stumbled across some forget-me-nots. I'd never realized before how very small they are. They're so delicate.

This little exhibit is fun. You jump as far as you can, and see what animal jumps as far as you. I was somewhere inbetween a penguin and a jackrabbit.

Meagan can jump as far as a spider. Almost a bullfrog.

Sean's my little bullfrog.

And Bethany's a flea. :)

This was right at the end of the day, just before we left the zoo. They were getting worn out by that point, but had enough energy to climb one more statue.