Friday, September 11, 2009

Labor Day 2009 - The Zoo!

On Labor Day we decided to head out to our local zoo. Lyla woke up in the morning talking about cow and pig. She was indeed in for a trip to the zoo. Even though Lyla had a cold we headed out so she could see the animals for herself.
We enjoy going to the zoo, but it is getting increasing harder to go by yourself with Lyla as she wants out of the stroller to walk and does not like to have to get back in the stroller. So I was glad that we could all go together as two hands are better than one when dealing with any situation.
She was pretty good, other than these struggles with her independence she had a great time.

This visit the big hit was the 'Neigh-neighs' or horses for all of you English speaking folks. There were two horses at the zoo and they came right up to the fence so Lyla could get a good look at them. Here she is getting a close look at the horses...
And here she is telling her Daddy all about the Neigh - neighs...
We then headed over to the polar bear exhibit. I had learned on an early trip to the zoo that the Polar bears like to swim in the morning hours, so we were hoping to see them swim as Ryan had never seen them swimming before. And we sure did luck out as three of the bears were swimming around and putting on a great show for everyone to see.
Lyla was getting tired by that time, and was enjoying her snack but she did enjoy watching them swim as well. While we were watching the polar bears a little boy came along and started to eat her Gerber sticks from her stroller tray. It was pretty funny, the mother was pretty mortified - Ryan and I just laughed...
Here is our little snacker taking a look at the swimming bears...


See the bear swimming in the foreground... to the left of Lyla's head...



There are two bears hanging out, one floating above our head with a pretend ice berg in its paws.



You can then go up to a viewing area on the upper level and see the bears as well. So we went up and the bears were playing right in front of the glass. This is probably as close as we would ever want to get to these huge animals. The female was about 500 pounds and the male (the one facing us) is about 1000 pounds! Massive animals..









Our zoo has a train that goes from the main gate to the back of the zoo property. Every time the train goes by Lyla gets very excited and says 'Choo Choo' or 'Train'. I had been wanting to take her on the train for a while but wanted to save it for a time when both Ryan and I could experience it with her.

She was very excited at first, sitting on the train, talking about it and eager to just be on the train ... Here is her before the train started picture...



And here is her during the train ride picture, after she had calmed down some... She really did not enjoy the train ride at all. It was pretty loud and it goes through a tunnel which is dark - which really scared her. So I guess we will have to wait awhile before we try the train again.


After we got of the train she said 'All Done?' in a little voice but then pointed at it and said 'Choo-Choo' when it pulled into the next station. I think we will be walking the zoo rather than riding the train for a little while longer..
We had a great time at the zoo this labor day... it was a great family outing...


1 comment:

Country Mouse, City Mouse said...

Great polar bear pics.

How was swimming?