It's a Zoo out there!

The fun Zoo Day!

Jonathon's sister won some free tickets to the Cleveland Zoo and very thoughtfully asked us if we wanted to go. So, we made it a super fun day and called it Josiah's birthday celebration.

We walked into the park with extremely excited children. If we would have been in a building, I would have said they were bouncing off the walls Excitement was high as we entered the Rain Forest building, and they went from exhibit to exhibit with great enthusiasm about what they were seeing.

They picked their favorite creature to have a picture with. What fun they had. It looks like the tree frogs won out. Must be tree frogs have gained popularity in our house because of the one at our house that talks to us from the air conditioner unit. :)

We learned a great deal about marsupials. I even learned new things. The children got to feel the difference between the red and brown kangaroo fur. We also learned that a koala bear is a marsupial and watched a video of how the baby finds it's mother's pouch. Amazing creation!

A trip wouldn't be complete without a family pic. Even Benaiah looks like he was ready for the camera. We did have such a good time!

Aunt Mandy joined us since she won the tickets. What a great time of sharing a fun day with her. The children sure love her!

This was a slide that was like a snake that came out of the side of a big ship. It really looked neat from the outside, and everyone was wanting to go down it until we got inside, and they saw what the opening was. The two younger ones chose to take the steps down with me while Alegra braved it and went down through the snakes belly. She beat us to the bottom and said it was really scary, but she loved it.

Of course every zoo has a petting farm. These sheep were super cute and the girls didn't want to miss out on petting them.

This little train would have been a fun ride, but we chose to just watch it. Josiah was such a friendly bystander, waving to the riders everytime we passed it. So cute!

His hand was so small compared to the big gorilla hand. We did see the gorilla but from a distance. Alot of the animals weren't close enough to really enjoy...except the beaver. He was right along the glass where we stood. Details of an animal are truly a wonder, and we were glad to get to see some of them up close.

This was Josiah's favorite part. He knew these were reindeer, but he said that reindeer are buck deer who like the rain. Very funny. He actually got a camera in the mail that we got through a Kellogg's cereal box before we left for our day away. We told him he could take whatever pictures he wanted to. I'm sure we will be surprised by what the pictures end up being, but the majority of his pictures were of the reindeer and their big antlers.

The amazing giraffe! They got to see this guy up very close. Josiah was always too short to see over top, so he usually took the low road. :)

The highlight of the children's day was seeing the dinosaurs. This T Rex was quite large and Josiah really didn't want to go stand by him. The little girl beside him wasn't scared. In fact she walked over to Josiah, put her arm around him and smiled at her daddy taking a picture. Too funny! Josiah quickly got away from her. I'm not sure who he was more scared of then. Ha!

You have to know that this was the Dad's idea, of course, and had I been thinking better, I would have had the people standing on the side laughing at his set up, take our picture, and I would have joined them as the horrified, screaming mother on the side. Would have been funny, but this picture turned out cute enough I think.

Here Alegra is climbing the rope tower. In the distance you can see the domed rain forest building (on the right hand side of the rope tower).

Josiah demonstrating what a lion does. The lions are so neat even though they just lay there. When we went to the van to eat our packed lunch, we could hear the lion roaring. What a sound of power! We must have missed their lunch time and not wanting people so close to their food because they didn't give us any good shows.

Here is our happy boy. He enjoyed the day and was so good, as usual. It sure is enjoyable not having to worry about having a fussy baby to deal with. What a blessing and enjoyment he is to us! The end of the day and he was still smiling.

We rode the tram a little before we left so the children could take a ride. It didn't turn out to be quite what we were planning (poor Jonathon had to walk back to the van from the drop off point), but at least the children got to ride a little. Free rides are enjoyed so much more than the ones that cost!

They could only be serious for so long, then they busted loose. Josiah was still in lion mode.
Actually, the majority of the time he seems to be in lion mode. He's a boy!

Me and Benaiah on the tram. What a nice ride on a warm day.

All in all, we had a wonderful day together! It was a long day, but well worth it. This was our kick off for school and a good one at that! Have you visited any zoos this summer. Please comment about it. What zoo, where, and how was it. We love to hear what zoos are good ones for future zoo trips.