One Last Zoo-rrah!

Since all five of my dear ones started school on the same day this year, we were all feeling the end of summer blues.  I thought one more trip to the zoo might be a fun way to spend a Monday.  

The weather was beautiful, and since everyone got to wake up naturally, no one felt sleepy or angry!  And, because of when we went, we got a really good parking spot, in the shade, since the early birds were done for the day!

A Michigan shaped leaf!

I don't have much to say about many of these pictures, just enjoyed being there with all of my babies!

Alice was our official Chipmunk counter at the zoo, and we saw 15 during our visit!  We also heard some, but Alice determined that those didn't count.

I had no idea that the Lion's Club sponsored this fountain!

Kookaburra looking regal as always!

They still had lettuce for sale at the Giraffe overlook, so everyone got to feed these magnificent creatures!  It was the first thing that everyone told Billy about when he got home, suffice to say, I think it was everyone's favorite activity.

"Do you have food?"

I was trying to see if the giraffe posters were a likeness for this giraffe, and I decided that they were not.

They must have recently fed the animals near the giraffe stand, because we saw many more of the animals from the book than we did the last two times!

"What did you find William?"

The app on my phone says it's a Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillar!

Al has a bandage on his leg because of a recurring skin infection, but he came over to say hi anyhow!

The red river hog apparently thought it was too hot out.  But his ears were fabulous!

Emily and William (play) fighting over who gets to see the Red River Hog.  It's a shame that they couldn't look at the same time.  Strange children.

It looked like they were in the process of reopening this mine shaft path, but it was inaccessible this trip.

I sure am glad this was a staged snake and not a real one, because I didn't even see it when I walked into the restroom!

They were only running one tram, so we were the first in line for the next round, and a had a long wait! The twins found that they really enjoyed the frayed rope end.

I intentionally brought quarters to that everyone could feed the goats!  The bigger goats were definitely bullies though!

We didn't realize that you weren't supposed to feed the goats inside the enclosure, for good reason, those big goats were aggressive!  So, Emily is in there doing illegal things!

Can anyone look at a ring-tailed lemur and not start singing "I like to move it move it" in their head, or out loud? 

Alice's one request was to see the wolves, since she didn't come with us the second time to remedy that oversight.  It looked like they had posed for our visit!  So majestic.

The way that the python was posed, it reminded me of the animated movie Robin Hood, when Sir Hiss pouted by laying his head on his 'arms' made from his body.

As is tradition, we stopped at our favorite Chinese place, in Battle Creek, to pick up dinner.  When we sat down to dinner, I found that my piece of sweet and sour chicken was chicken shaped!

We made it home in time to eat and to hustle over to the twins' open house.  I'm thankful for one last summer adventure.  Now we are ready for school!

later days

edit 8-23-25: backdated for continuity.

Return to Binder Park Zoo

 After William's Kindergarten class went on their whirlwind field trip to Binder Park Zoo, I was so impressed, I wanted to bring everyone to see it!  

So, a few weeks later we went to visit this really pretty zoo!  Sadly, the twins never made it with their Kindergarten class, because of Covid.

This year, when the first round of beautiful weather hit, I really wanted to make the trip again, but when I googled "what time does Binder Park Zoo open" the answer was May 1st.  lol.  Not quite what I was expecting.  

We were busy the first weekend of May, but as this was Mother's Day weekend, we were pleasantly free, and made the trip.

Parking lot picture, just in case we have to describe a missing child. = (

And rear-view, because my children are strange?

Grace spied an ant, and started enjoying the zoo before we even got through the entrance.

When we did make it to the counter, it was cheaper for us to buy a membership than to pay for a single day.  Turns out, we did the same thing back in 2019!  So, we are now members of Binder Park Zoo.

This post is going to have a smattering of pictures that I pulled from our 2019 trip too!  Aren't you excited? The Dodo in 2019.

Grace and the turtle had a moment,

until the turtle realized there was no food involved.

Everyone was impressed by the elphant, again!

And Grace with the elephant back in 2019.

The poison dart frogs looked totally fake.  They looked like someone put plastic in the case and called it good!  At least until they jumped.

This frog eats it all!

We paused several times for pictures on the butterfly benches!

It was a perfect temperature, so no fire in the fireplace during our visit!

Snow Leopard Exhibit.

For some reason, Alice and Emily joined the picture and stood like NPCs.

We all loved the North America bridge.

But William rocked the pose!

Seriously, did you look?

I couldn't find the Houston Zoo picture with Alice and Emily and the Lion. = (

After careful examination, we concluded that the giraffe was cut from a single piece.  We were impressed.

Prairie Dogs!  Because Billy and I didn't see enough on our way to Walmart in Lubbock.  But, I don't know that I have any pictures of them, so at least now I have one! = )

The tram was complementary, so we weren't sure what the ticket passes that we paid for were for.

William's first time on the tram in 2019!

Juliet's most anticipated animal was the giraffe, so she was really excited to see two right after we disembarked!

I wouldn't think this would be a very comfortable way to eat!

The walking paths are my favorite!

While we didn't carve our initials, there they were: Daddy + Mutti!

Feeding the Giraffe's was a highlight for all five!

Emily got a good picture!

Lots of animals out roaming around.

Despite the sunscreen we applied, Emily started to burn, so I gave her my scarf, to help as much as it could, until we made it back out to the car.  So here she is in a zebra scarf, posing as close as we could get to the zebras.

Alice was a big fan of the old tech that they had on display.

And the camouflage netting.

Juliet in her "Carol" outfit.

From this point on, we were kind of tired, and a lot silly, so many, many random pictures to follow.

This one comes with a 2019 flashback:

Pretending that William is driving:

Shhhh, they are pretending to be a tree.

Based on the new wood, we think a tree fell. = (

But now they are the tree?

It was totally posed, but I love it!

Emily turning a random valve.  Nothing happened.

William looks like he's waiting for a bus.  Really, he was just waiting for us to finish inside the shop.

A bowl that has a giraffe that looks as graceful as the giraffe that we saw.

Wire and Bottle Cap Turtle sculpture!

Once we finished in the Safari area, we headed back to the car to get part two of our lunch, and reapply sunscreen.

Emily found a very old leaf.

And the kids climbed the small hill.

Then I did, so this is the reverse view.

When we headed back in, we went to an area that we hadn't been to on either of the previous trips: Zoorassicpark!

My Alisaur in the middle of a group of Allosauruses. 

Giant Puzzle!

So, it turns out that the tickets we bought were for a tiny train ride!

Reminded us of the minecart ride, but much slower!

And Emily's pictures of the little stream, since mine were not great.

A nifty detail on the seats of the train.

All five of my dear ones playing in the music garden.

This bird was absolutely posing for us!  A very pretty bird, and he knew it!

One of the last things we did was a trip on the carousel.  I went too!  Billy did not, he got an icee instead.

The goats were happy to see Alice, and the food.

Very happy!

Once the food was gone, the goats went back to being brushed.

The bathroom was very fallout-esqe.

Saying goodbye!  We almost closed them down.

On our way back, we planned to stop for ice cream.  However, en route, Billy decided that he was actually hungry, and there was a Chinese place just a few doors down from the ice cream shop.  So, we had Chinese food, then ice cream on our way home!

It was a lovely day! Perfect weather, everyone had a good time! In fact, the next day Alice asked if we could go back to the zoo (that day!) So, we've already got plans to go again next week!

later days