A Cold But Fun Zoo Trip

We went to the NEW Zoo up in Green Bay today. I was tired of waiting for spring weather to get outside, so we decided to brave the cold weather. It really wasn't too bad - about 35 degrees, no wind. Andy complained the most about being cold, and that was only during the hour before lunch - I think he was crabby due to being hungry mostly. Because after lunch he was in SUCH a good mood that we stayed until 2:00! And we had gotten there at 9:30. We saw most of the animals twice, had lunch at the restaurant at a table right next to the fireplace, fed the giraffes & goats, played on the playground equipment, got some exercise walking, and had a relaxing nap-filled ride home (well, the kids did!) The boys got to pick out one small stuffed animal on the way out - Jack picked a monkey and Andy picked an otter - their favorite animals to watch today. Emily did wonderfully in the stroller. She was cozy warm in her fleece snowsuit and blanket. She ate during lunch, looked around at the animals some of the time, napped other times. She was so easy going. I think she liked getting out too!

At the start of our zoo adventure - Andy checking the map on where to go next...

Jack feeding some hungry, goats. Some of them were such bullies

Sitting and watching the giraffes inside. We were a few minutes early for feeding time.

Here's Emily just looking around... she was awake for most of the morning after sleeping on the car ride up.

Jack fed the giraffes each a cracker. Andy does not like to feed them. We also got to feed them a lot of their food pellets that they had spilled on the ground outside of their cage. It was cool to be so close to them. At one point they had their necks crossed in an X, andy though that was pretty funny.

Andy inside the Bird house. We saw a bald eagle and some neat ducks & loons.

Andy's absolute FAVORITE animal of the day. This little otter (Flippy, we named him) was so active and playful. He was swimming in the water, sliding down the rock slide, eating snow, standing up right in front of the boys, and being SO silly. We were there for at least 30 minutes watching him, and Andy could have stayed longer. Jack was ready to see other animals though.

The boys liked running down this hill towards me as I was holding Emily. Emily was laughing as they got close to her. It was really cute.

At the otter exhibit...Jack HAD to climb up the rock just like Andy

You'd think it had been years since Jack was on a swing. He was so thrilled... he could have stayed here all day, but it was almost 2:00 and Emily had already been napping - I wanted her to sleep on the way home. I told him soon the snow will melt and we can go to LOTS of parks!

One of the best things about the zoo was that we had the whole place to ourselves pretty much. It was really cool. I think we went this time of year last year too. I love that the boys can run all over and it's easy for me to keep an eye on them. The zoo staff is really nice, so we learned a lot about the animals too.

A couple of cute random pictures. Here's Emily and Chris watching a Badger Basketball game. Emily had gotten up a little early from her nap - this is about 5 minutes before she fell back asleep on the couch next to Daddy.

Looking pretty sleepy...

Jack's first time falling asleep at the dinner table... I know we have one of Andy asleep while eating dinner. Well, here's Jack! It was a nap skipped day, of course.

I signed the boys up for some summer park & rec activities today, which I think they will really like. Now I've just got to try to get Jack potty trained before then. I have 3 months to do it. I'm not overly optimistic, but who knows, maybe he'll surprise me!