Who knew you could spend SEVEN hours at the zoo!!

Memorial Day was a really nice day to go to the zoo. Not too hot, not too cold and a real nice breeze! I made it a point to go to the zoo before the baby comes, I didn't want to have to stop every hour for a fussy baby! We got there around noon and left as they were supposed to close the gates, 6:35 p.m.
We did all but one activity, the small animal building. Which is not such a disappointment, considering it always smells like b.o. We started up at the top by the beastro and had our lunch that we packed and moved on to the monkey house from there and then went and saw the Elephant Encounter. The children got to see, they squeezed in front of some adults and sat by the fence to see Dari, the 49 year old elephant that was strutting her stuff. Paul caught her on tape walking backwards and doing her other tricks. Alona enjoyed playing on the man-made elephant. She was the only one of the kids that dared get wet though it wasn't a typical way of going about it. The elephant would start playing Pop goes the Weasel and then Alona would beat on the elephant with her legs and hands playing with the tune and then stick her hands on to the elephants nostrils to feel the water when it sneezed. I tried to get the Abbi and Kacen to go in front of the elephant but that resulted in kicking and squealing. They were all happy to play along on the elephant with the tune that he was playing though.

Alona then picked where to go next, the Penguins! Though we did stop at animals along the way, "no mom, we are going to see the penguins!" We got there after quite a few stops, the rhino, black bears, checoan pecary, zebras and more primates. The penguins were all huddled together like always, not swimming or off doing something interesting. The giraffes came next along the walk of the zoo, and then we realized what time it was and ran off to see the bird show. It was jam packed! The seats in the bird show got filled before everyone was there had a chance to get in, and we were there right as they were starting, so we were left out of the stadium and attempted to peak at the show, standing on a short concrete wall where 5 ft seemed to be the ideal height to see. I attempted to hold up some of the children so that they could see the birds flying around. They were not to captivated by that idea.
We took a nice break and the children rode the carousel, they were very excited about that! And then we went over to the Oasis filled up my water jug and had sno cones and Alona had a banana ice cream cone!
We then went to asian highlands and around to the camels and the madagascar display. That is where the children were able to get their souvenirs from the zoo. Alona got a lemur mask "Look, I have two faces!" she said while we were waiting at the train. Abbi got a squeaky lemur toy she had a very hard time deciding what toy to get. Kacen has a rubber snake that he was wearing as a beautiful necklace. He also was biting things with it and playing that he was biting off the snakes tongue! After the gift shop we enjoyed kettle corn in the shade and headed up the hill when we heard the train whistle and noticed that the train was still running! It was a short wait, the children seemed to enjoy it. While we were riding the train, Alona noticed the playground that was being passed. Right as we were getting off, she had to stop and everyone had to go the playground! The first time that we have done all of the children's activities in one stop! They had a blast and when asked if they had fun at the zoo and what they liked the most...it was the train, the playground and the carousel. It was fun to see them playing on the fun equipment, hiding in the egg and turtle shells, riding the alligator, climbing in the spider web. And of course at the beginning of the zoo and throughout there were the Lion drinking fountains, Paul got plenty of pictures with the kids inside of the lion's mouth, I love it!