December Zoo Trip

Brian wanted to take N2 to Brookfield Zoo during the winter because he really likes going there.  We decided to take them the Saturday after Christmas and invited Brian's family to go with us.  There was supposed to be a high of 50!  It was a beautiful day to be outside and see the animals.  Surprisingly there weren't too many people there.  People decided to come later in the day for the zoo lights that they do.  Apparently it was packed and the parking lots were full!  Glad we left at 3 when we did!

We saw pretty much all the animals at the zoo (minus several of the houses) and a lot of them really pretty active, like the wild dogs.   The first thing they wanted to see were the giraffes but also wanted to see the bats.  I was surprised they wanted to see the bats, but they were really interested in them.  After seeing the giraffes we went to see the okapis (there was a male calf born earlier this year but none of the okapis were in the outer area for us to see them) and instead my kids were infatuated with the dwarf crocodile.  Natalie got nose to nose with the crocodile (with glass in between).  The crocodile had opened his eye and seemed to be keeping an eye on her but she wasn't afraid!

Then we went to see the bears and got to actually see the wolves.  Natalie insisted that I take a picture of her with the wolf cub statue.

After seeing the penguins and having lunch we went to the reptile house.  Noah was so interested and had to find every animal in every cage.  I was amazed at how much time we spent in that house!  After that, the kids found the mural with cutouts for their heads.  They wanted pictures in every hole!  Here are both my kids as vicious bears!

Natalie was wearing her new panda sweatshirt from Grandma and Grandpa Weidner today.  I had to take some pictures because she was so cute!

 There were lots of animal babies this year at the zoo (many adddax calves, 2 giraffes, baby gorilla, snow leopard cub, dolphin calves, 2 sloth bear cubs and more that I don't remember).  We got to see the giraffes, gorilla, and snow leopard.

I saw something that I don't normally see at the zoo.  I saw the sloth awake and moving his head!

It was such a fun day at the zoo!  Beautiful weather and active animals makes a great combination!