Our Zoo Trip

Here are some pictures from our Zoo trip on Tuesday. Some of are the family, some are of the animals and some are of some relatives we found in the Gorilla house! (Just kidding!)

This first little guy is a sea otter. He was in his own tank and kept circling around up close to us at his window.

Daniel and I in front of the Gorilla house. You can see Elijah making snow angels in the background. It is so rare to have pictures of both of us but my sister-in-law came along so I wasn't behind the camera the whole time.

Elijah, Abi, Lydia, Myself, and Daniel from left to right. All we needed was the twins and we would have had our second family picture within just a few weeks of each other! But the girls were asleep so we allowed them their beauty rest.


All the kids monkeying around.


I fell in love with this black and white of Sofie.


Daniel, Abi and Elijah standing beneath the water wall in The Living Coast. Its a clear piece of Plexiglas onto which a bunch of water falls about every 30 seconds or so. It is so loud and you feel like you are going to get soaked but, of course, you don't get wet. Abi was scared but Daniel made her stand there. She liked it once she figured out she was gonna stay dry.


This is Aunt Bekah, Abi and Lydia in the Giraffe house. You can barely see Elijah in the background but he was too busy exploring to pose for a picture.


This is one of my favorite pictures. Because we knew we weren't going to be able to stay at the zoo all day because of time constraints and cold weather, we didn't take the wagon with us so Lydia had to walk the whole time. (No big deal. She can walk.) She kept asking for everybody to hold her and Daniel repeatedly told her she had to walk. The next time I look around, there she is on Daddy's shoulders. So much for walking!!!


Don't yell at me for posting a picture of a snake but I thought this was beautiful. This snake can be found in the Australasia house.

We had such a great time. The temperature was a little chilly but there was no wind which is rare in the Chicago area. We went to most of the indoor houses which is fun because you get to see all the animals up close. Walking from house to house, we would be outside just long enough to start getting chilled and then be able to warm up inside again. We got to see a Mommy Gibbon and her new baby and one of the baby gorillas played with Daniel by mimicking him when he would clap his hands. I was able to watch several trainers feeding and working with the seals at Pinniped Point. And we saw a snake eat a cricket at The Swamp. It was a great day.

For anybody planning to visit the Chicago area or anybody living close by, the zoo is a great family day but if you have a fairly large family, you should purchase a zoo membership. For $108 you get free parking and admission for an entire year plus all kinds of other guest passes, dolphin show passes, discounts and perks. For our family of seven, it pays for itself in one trip and we can go year round for a great "free" family day.