Brookfield Zoo

I took AJ to the Brookfield Zoo last week with a free pass I got in the mail. Since Kim has a family membership, she and my mom (Omi) met us there along with Kyra and Grayson.  It was a really nice, warm, sunny day. Perfect for seeing the animals!

When we got there, we decided we'd head over to the petting zoo portion. Along the way, we saw the bears, and they were active! Unusual, I guess, since they tend to sleep and lay around a lot normally. The polar bears were walking around, and here is a short video of the brown bear walking over to eat his "salad".

When we got to the petting zoo, Kim's membership got us all in for free (thanks, Kim!) and the kids loved running around. We did get them both to sit still for a few minutes to watch part of the duck presentation...here's the duck and a shot of my family checking her out. She walked up a little ramp and jumped right into this little pool, while the presenters talked about how ducks walk, swim, etc.

Kyra and AJ sat pretty still and watched for a bit, but then AJ decided running and climbing beat out watching the duck, and we moved on. We'll have to learn more about ducks next visit. AJ can also say "duck", but we are still working on "quack".

AJ worked his way around the petting zoo and found sheep, goats, geese, pigs, horses and cows. Sometimes now when he sees these animals in his books, he says, "zoooo!" Maybe I have to take him to a farm soon.  I can remember growing up and driving past farms with cows and horses pretty regularly, but I don't even think that's so common anymore in the suburbs, and definitely not in the city!  Our next big stop was the area where you can pet and brush the goats. Ohh!  What fun!! AJ loved touching the goats, and did pretty well at being gentle.  These goats were also VERY tolerant of the kids, probably why they were there in the first place.

AJ really liked the brushes too, but not so much for actually brushing the goats.  He was more interested in taking them out of the buckets and putting them back in, and a few times he tried to take the buckets too! Eventually we got him to see that other kids were using the brushes to brush the goats, and he did start to participate. In the meantime, he also brushed himself (gross!) on the head and across the tummy. Good thing they had a station with Purell right outside the goat pen. He can't be the only toddler to ever do that, right? hahaha.  In this pen, they also had chickens and roosters, who were sometimes brave enough to enter the open area. You could say they were "cocky"? (sorry, bad joke!)

After our fun in the petting zoo, we walked around a little more and Kim wore Grayson in the sling to take a nap.  I thought I'd include a shot of her doing so since I am proud of her for doing it a bunch of times now after I only showed her how once (and it's not quite as straight-forward as the Bjorn). Good job, Kim!

We headed to the other side of the Zoo and ate our lunches in an open air enclosure. It was great since we could put AJ and Kyra into highchairs and stay out of the sun. I have to say it was a relaxing and uneventful lunch!  How nice.

On the way out, we saw real elephants and Kyra got to push the button and run in the fake elephant's water fountain spray.  Good thing the spray was on a timer and we were able to lure her away with a promise of the Carousel, or she might have stayed there all day! AJ and Kyra both chose the Panda on the Carousel, so luckily for us there were two of them and we could please them both. We had a fun ride and Omi stayed on the sidelines to take pictures. 

AJ was falling asleep in the car before we even got out of the parking lot. What a busy day!