Zoo trip! (October 2011)

When Grandma and Grandpa invited us to go on an outing with them, it turned out to be a chance for Mom to realize a nearly-life-long dream. She'd first heard of the place through weather forecasts on TV, and she'd seen some pictures in a Signing Time video, and now she finally got to go here:

Yes indeed, it was a zoo that had Mom so intrigued all those years, and the Muffins were more than happy to be part of the outing. As Dad slathered sunscreen on the little ones, Mom found a great "fall colors" photo op:

The first animals we saw were turkeys, like this one.

Jared picked up a map at zoo entrance, and so we asked him what he'd like to see. He requested monkeys. As usual, we'd already brought along some of our own . . .

. . . but we also found plenty of non-human monkeys, too, such as these.

The boys also requested alligators. Technically there weren't any, but they were satisfied with the Siamese crocodiles anyway. There were some larger ones in a pool, but this little one in a tank was much easier to photograph.

We also got to see some giant tortoises, and at least one of them actually looked at the camera!

The next request was for giraffes, so we consulted the map and set off in search of them. One of the Muffins was convinced we were going the wrong way, but then we spied a building with tall skinny doors that had height marks on them going up to 16 ft. We found a few of these inside:

The next order was for tigers. The tigers had a nice habitat, complete with this pool that was probably Curtis's favorite attraction:

Mom did eventually find an actual tiger with help from the zoom lens. Must have been the tiger's afternoon off.

We saw lots of other animals, too, too numerous to all be blogged. Consequently, we stopped for a little rest and snack time, where Jared and Grandpa plotted our next destination.

The verdict: elephants. Turned out to be a bargain, too, since we also got to see the "This is the Place" monument, conveniently located across the street from the elephant habitat.

And yes, we did actually see elephants, too. There appeared to be a little family, Mom, Dad, and Baby. We think this one is Dad (since he was on his way to join Mom and Baby for dinner).

After the elephants, we made our way to the playground, but on the way we saw THE zoo train. "THE" zoo train because it's the one behind the "Zoo Train" song in the Signing Time video Mom mentioned earlier.

The Muffins very much enjoyed the playground. Amanda got to be a turtle (tortoise?).

Lydia had no fear hanging out with a giant spider. Actually, she didn't really care about the spider at all . . .

. . . she was just after the mulch. She covered her lap with it all right, but for some reason it just didn't want to stick on her feet, no matter how hard she tried.

After the zoo, Grandma and Grandpa took us out to dinner. This last picture is from the restaurant parking lot, and it's included just because it seems so very "Utah" to Mom; where else would you see a sign like that?

One last note: back in Ohio, the zoo did not have polar bears when we got there, but they added them by the time we left. Oddly enough, the Utah zoo was under construction for, you guessed it, polar bears! So, apparently we attract polar bears to zoos. Any zoos wanting polar bears, just find us a job and a house in your area, and polar bears will surely follow.