The Zoo...and Memoirs of Hippo Trash

We went to the zoo on Tuesday...

We thought about going on Memorial Day but then decided to wait until Tuesday so we would miss the crowd.
Silly us!

Tuesday must have been the official Elementary School Field Trip Day for every school in the western United States of America. There were like, 10 million kids running around. It was a little crowded, to say the least. Luckily, all the school children had to be back to their various schools by mid-afternoon so we didn't have to fight the swarms of kids all day...just for the morning time.

We enjoyed ourselves immensely!

I have to admit, I don't consider myself an big "animal" person, BUT having two super enthusiastic animal-lovers around makes the zoo pretty exciting.

Ben is quite knowlegible in the animal department and Emers seems to be following in his footsteps. They get really excited about things like, uhh...antelope squirels and snake-neck turtles. Thrilling, I know.

Family photo! A rare occurance for us.

Even Boy-B got seemed to be enjoying himself. He was a good sport. This kid is seriously such a good, easy goin' baby! He was very content for the duration of the day. Just sat back and looked around; soaked it all in. How did I get so lucky?

I'm not gonna lie: this picture make me very proud. I told Emes to pretend like she was scared of the lion and she came through for me!

We spent a fair chunk of time in front of the meerkats. These guys (the meerkats, that is) were on somethin' (if ya know what I mean...)
Emery would run back and forth in front of their window and the crazy little guys would chase her. When she stopped, they would stop and just stare at the kids.

There were a few instances when one tripped-out meerkat would throw himself against the glass right in front of the kiddos. You can imagine was a "hit" this was.... (ha ha! HIT!)

Carden thought it was HILARIOUS. It made his day, which in turn, made MY day.

Loving it...

Emery was dying to ride on the Merry-Go-Round of Endangered Species. Personally, I'm still adjusting to this new addition to the zoo.
Call us old school, but Ben and I kept talking about how much we miss the hippo pool that used to occupy the space that is now the Merry-go-Round.

I know it was ghetto, (and miserable for the animal) but I wish I could show Emery the giant hippo lying in the dirty/stinky water of his cement home. The space was so small that you could always see the hippo; there was nowhere for him to hide.

I remember watching him and thinkng to myself, "What I would do if one of my little brothers or sisters fell into the water?" Would I dare to jump in and save them? I was scared, yet enthralled with the hippo. Also, I used to love to look at all the random items that hung on the wall showing the trash that the zoo workers have pulled out of the hippo tank over the years: old shoes, hat and popcorn boxes. Baby bottles and candy bar and icecream wrappers....Man, oh man! Those were the days!

Anyway....here's Emery waving to Daddy from the back of the polar bear.

You can't leave the zoo without stopping by the playground. This area has also changed drastically over the years. Very sad.
Do you remember the giant eagles nests and the tree slide? There also used to be an icecream shop in this area and an old Utah Jail that was a great photo opp! I also vaguely remember a giant emu running free in this area. He is no more.

Appearently the emu left an egg behind tho...

This is Emery and her new friend "Animal." She named a lot of the animals this day, so you can tell she was running out of ideas at this point. "Animal" was a friendly squirrel.
It has been 24 hours since we last saw Animal, but Emery told me this evening that she still misses him. Awe!

Carden is smiling, I promise.

I had to hold her down for this picture. She didn't have to pretend to be scared...she really was afraid of the giant spider.

Running out of energy after a fun-filled day...

Aaaand, we're spent.