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.

Reptiles @ the Library!

At the end of summer, we headed up to the library to claim our summer reading prizes.  Having such a busy summer, my children didn't get as far through the program as they usually do, but were still able to claim some prizes.

Since we were at their favorite branch (close to my sister's house) I told them we could stay a while, but we had to get home to meet with the dishwasher technician, so we couldn't stay super long.  So, I sat in the bench nearby, and thought it was a little weird that all the toys were put away and tables were pushed up against the walls, but thought maybe they were doing a deep cleaning?

Well, turns out that they had a program scheduled for the day we went, and the kids enjoyed learning about various reptiles, even getting to pet and (in the case of a really large snake) hold them! 

There was even a turtle race! Sadly, it's been so long, I don't remember any of the animal names, but many of them were puns and quite cute!  The turtle was freckles and the tortoise was Ivan. (thanks FB memories!)

Oh, wait, there was a snake named Dash who got his name because he escaped into the dashboard of the presenter's car! = 0  Emily remembered Orange Creamsicle and Cornflake (who was a corn snake.) 

Alice had already started begging to go, and while I was slightly put out that I wasn't going to be able to just read my book (because there was a live presenter and that would be rude) we both enjoyed it!

Right after the program they were offering a 'meet up and eat up' in the back room, so the kids all got some lunch!  We were going to walk down for ice cream at the nearby dairy queen, but I don't think we had time, so maybe the kids walked down to the ice cream store here in the village, while I waited for the dishwasher repair guy?  I'll ask the kids if they remember, and report back if they do! 

They also had on the movie SOUL, but we for sure didn't have time to finish it, so I need to put it on someday so that I can watch it! 

I'm glad we have at least one library memory from this summer, it's a part of their early childhood I don't quite want to give up yet!

later days

edit 9-9-24: backdated for continuity.