A Day At The Zoo!

On Thursday April 20th I was able to go on Ella's first field trip to the zoo. Last year the kindergarten class went to the zoo, but unfortunately Ella threw up the night before so she wasn't able to go. Since the field trip landed on a Thursday...the normal day I volunteer at school....I was able to be a chaperon. 

I got to hang out with these 4 cuties....L to R....Janna, Lamontea and Savannah....Ella is in the back. Thankfully it wasn't just me...Janna's mom met us at the zoo so she was able to help. I think it was much more manageable having two adults. I mean I handle 4 kids all the time, but when they aren't yours it's a little different. Plus it was BUSY...I heard there were 20 buses there that day. 

Our group was named the Monkey Howler group! 

I have never been able to go on any of my kids field trips with them so I didn't really know the drill. We were assigned kids and then we got to take them wherever we wanted to. The only place that Ms. Davidson said to make sure we stopped was the Tropical Rainforest since the kids are currently learning about that. 

That ended up being the first place we took the Cute Monkey Howlers!!! 

Love those lazy Gorillas! 

There was one active one, but all my pictures turned out blurry. He was quite active and kind of lunged at the glass a couple times. He definitely made the kids squeal! 

The Jaguar was amazing!!

We stopped for a minute or two to check out the penguins! 

This tiger was so beautiful! I just wished that the glass wasn't there so I could pet him. Of course he'd have to be tranquilized so he wouldn't kill me! 

  

Next up was the Meerkat area...the kids were more entertained by the cave! 

We also got to see two Kamodo Dragons. They have them in separate pens because the 18 year old dragon would actually eat the 4 year old one! 

This was about all we could see of the lion! 

We decided to eat lunch next to the giraffes and we found out that one of them is pregnant. She's due in May or June. I wonder if they'll install a camera for everyone to be glued to for months! ;) 

It was barely 11am and the kids were STARVING!!!!!!

We were all prepared for it to rain since that's what was in the forecast, but honestly I felt 2 drops and that was it. Later in the day the sun came out and most of the kids were carrying their coats since it was so warm! 

This girl was a bit out of sorts in regards to listening to mommy. She felt like Mrs. Big Stuff because she was with her friends. Listening and obeying mommy was a little tough! 

Janna was downing her yogurt drink....this girl has priorities!!! :) 

Hanging out on a Hippo! 

The Hippos were tuckered out, but the zebras were quite active...they just kept walking from one side the other...it was like they were playing follow the leader. 

Of course big rocks to climb on are always loads of fun! 

I'm King of the Rock!!! 

Big brave girls! 

Ta Da!!!! 

After checking out this area we decided to head up to the north end of the zoo. This is when things got a little crazy! There were a ton of people up there and we ended up running into another group from Ms Davidson's class. You would think it would be nice to hang out with and help each other, but it really was a little frustrating. The kids all wanted to hang out and go off in a million directions. We ended getting separated from one of the kids for about a minute and then later on I thought one of them was with me when in fact Ms. Elizabeth had that child. It was just much more stressful at this point in the day. 

The wolves were super active...pacing back and forth and back and forth! Their fur was so beautiful! 

The bears were my favorite part of the day. They were so active and up close! Both of them were drinking from the water and then one of them decided to just get in the water. 

Playing with a floating stick! 

Elizabeth took this picture and I copied it from Facebook. Absolutely love this shot! 

On the other side from the bears were the river otters. They were so fast I didn't even try to take a picture of them so we opted for the statues instead! 

After that it was onto the monkey area. All these monkeys were complaining that their feet were hurting and they were hungry. Shortly after this shot it was time to head down to the south gate to go home. When I found out that we were leaving the zoo at 1pm I was a little sad...I didn't think that 3 hours would give us very much time to see anything. But we actually got to see everything except the Temperate Rainforest and honestly the kids were done and so were we! It was the perfect amount of time really! 

Back on the bus 6 of Ms. Davidson's kids fell asleep on the way to school. They were tuckered out for sure. I would say that was a good sign that it was a great day!