At The Zoo With The Uncles

Dear readers, by this time you must be thinking that we have taken up residence at Brookfield Zoo! But no, we are just maximizing our zoo membership! We went there today with Uncles David and Brad. The weather was beautiful and we didn't hit any traffic at all, so we were waiting when they opened the gate.




Our first stop was the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit. It was amazingly REAL! (A little too real for some small kids, in case parents are wondering.) Gavin liked watching the dinosaurs, but when they suddenly roared, he got scared. Evie was just very watchful and eyed them from the safety of Uncle David's arms. And even though Gavin had a death grip on my neck, he didn't want to leave!

Then we went the Chikdren's Zoo, which the kids liked a lot last time. They especially liked the chickens and baby chicks:

One of the hens let out really a loud squawk as Gavin was standing right in front of the cage, and he got scared all over again.

As David said when he took this photo, "this sums up Gavin's day!"

We decided to take a break to eat:

Our last stop was the Hammill Family Play Zoo. They had all kinds of things to play in, on and with:

Gavin was asleep before we even got back on the highway! Evie stayed awake for most of the ride home, and took a good nap in her crib.

4th of July at the Zoo

We went to the zoo yesterday morning, and we had high hopes that the skies would clear up as we drove through the drizzling rain. By the time we got there, the rain had slowed to a very light drizzle, and it turned out to be a perfect day to go! It wasn't crowded, we went to see a lot of indoor animals, and the rain was so light that it wasn't even a factor in our day.

We got there at opening time, as is our norm, and some of the buildings weren't open yet (they were supposed to be)! We tried to go to the Swamp first, but alas, it was locked and we got tired of waiting.



Gavin could not understand why the door wasn't opening when he pushed the button:

The kids loved sitting on this big frog:

We went to one of the bird houses, and the macaws were eating breakfast and chatting. The kids loved it!

I dressed Evie in her butterfly bubble suit:

Another big frog in the reptile house:

Gavin was not at all interested in the fish at the Living Coast, but I got him distracted by this interactive display. It had lots of flaps and buttons:

Next stop: lunch. Evie played with a bunch of those little paper ketchup cups:

Gavin had applesauce and two bites of pizza:

Surprise! We ran into Auntie Di and Uncle Kevin by the big fountain. We didn't even know they were going to the zoo, too!

The kids both took good naps and when they woke up, they got to play with their new drawing boards:

"I'm gonna draw a bird, Grandpa!"

Evie's new favorite food is sliced turkey - she ate quite a lot of it for dinner!

Morton Arboretum

Yesterday we went to Morton Arboretum with Nana & Grandpa Cermak. We had heard from Uncle Mark Flory that there is an awesome children's area there, so we got there right at opening time. Even at 9:30 am there were families with strollers pouring in! Luckily, it's a pretty big place.

Evie and Gavin had a great time. There are many things to explore, touch, and climb on, plus lots of little tables if kids need to stop and rest or eat. (Ha! With so much to do, who would want to rest? Not the twins!)


Everyone was fascinated by this spinning ball / fountain thingy:

As longs as there are rocks, Gavin is happy!

Evie LOVED this water pump. She would have been happy to stand under it all day! As it was, the whole front of her outfit was soaked and she couldn't have been happier!

Gavin had to open and close this gate about 100 times:

Again, Evie loved the water. I think she would have jumped in if we had let her. She had no fear!

We were really impressed with all the fun things for kids. Every kid that we saw was in constant motion, and there was so much to do that they were all behaving themselves, for the most part. We didn't even get to see everything, so we'll probably go back again (especially because kids under age 2 are free)!

Zoo Trip # 2

On Monday we went back to the zoo with Auntie Di. Traffic was definately slower on a weekday, but we still got there just a little after opening time. I had planned out our route to concentrate on one corner of the zoo and hopefully spend a lot of time looking at the animals.

We started at the Perching Bird house: Evie was interested and Gavin was bored after 2 minutes. Then we went to the Feathers and Scales house: Evie liked the birds, and Gavin was only interesed in this huge frog:



We tried to feed the kids before they got too hungry, but Gavin wasn't interested and Evie threw up part of her lunch. So we went to our next stop, the Living Coast. Again, Evie loved the fish and penguins, and Gavin just wanted to open every door he saw.

After that we decided to check out the playground. Evie loved the slide:



Gavin loved climbing the stairs:



Auntie Di took Gavin down the big slide:



I wanted to get a shot of Di and the kids, but Gavin was more interested in his shadow than in the camera:



Lunch attempt number 2: this time with success!

I guess at this age, every zoo trip will be a little bit different. Maybe next time Gavin will love the birds. We'll go back next week and check out some different animals and see what happens!