The first full day of summer break was a crazy day for us. 3 of the 4 kids had doctors appointments! Thankfully Kim watched the 3 boys so I could take Ella to her Neurology appointment in the morning...then we had lunch with her the kids and then she watched Owen and Ella so I could take Jack and Zeke to their well check appointments. The weekend was crazy busy as well...Saturday morning I took Jack to get his birthday pictures and then we had 2 birthday parties to go in the afternoon. Sunday morning we went to church and then we decided we really needed to purge and get rid of a bunch of stuff. We borrowed Papa Martin's truck and Michael made 3 trips to the dump and I made one trip to the Goodwill. Oh and that was the hottest day of the year...92 degrees! We are nuts!
Anyways....when it came to the the first official day of summer break (Monday the 26th) I thought it would be fun to go to the zoo with friends. Thankfully the weather was MUCH cooler!
I'm not sure if I'm just usually on a mission to get into the zoo or not, but I don't remember ever seeing this cool gorilla statue. I think it must new because we did talk with a couple ladies and one of them knew the designer...I think it was her uncle or something and they seemed excited to see it.
The first thing we did was hit up the restrooms and then we saw this giant sculpture made out of garbage that had washed ashore. I think that's the name of the exhibit....Washed Ashore. It super sad that all this garbage ends up on our beaches, but what an amazing way to turn something horrible into something beautiful and at the same time raise awareness.
We got to the zoo around 11am and were heading right for the amphitheater to eat lunch and watch the new animal show. On our way down toward the amphitheater we saw another sculpture this time of an octopus.
Then a sea turtle.....all made out of garbage! That's when I looked around and saw even more animals made out of garbage. I didn't know if Christina and the kids had seen them yet so I told the kids we'd wait to look at the rest of them after the show with our friends.
First ones seated for the show! Whenever we go anywhere the first thing my kids want to do is eat so this is just the perfect schedule for us. We get great seats, they get to eat and this mama doesn't get stressed out by their constant nagging because they are hungry! Now that the kids are older I make them carry their own lunches in their little backpacks that I bought for our Wyoming trip in 2012. Owen is way to cool for school for his little backpack now, but he didn't want to carry his big school backpack. He just chose to carry his lunchbox instead.
Ella Bean being the diva that she is decided to not only pack a lunch she also brought her drawing book that I got her from Grandma Martin's thing, a pen and then her laptop! That girl is so cute!
Here's a drawing of herself! I love it!!!
Christina and her kids made it just in time for the show to start....traffic was awful and there was also a detour for the zoo because of some festival and probably due to all the construction for the new aquarium. I can't wait for that to open in 2018!
The new show is all about Triple R town (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). It was super cute!!!
Of course they bring out lots of animals for you to see. The bald eagle was beautiful!
Instead of an airplane this time SheRUFF Bones does an aerial patrol in a hot air balloon. He's so cute and he's super good at working it so he gets those treats!
My Beautiful Blessings!!!
Boys being silly after the show!
While we were waiting for Anna and Addison....they were getting to pet SheRuff Bones this peacock came walking over.
We had just learned in the show to make sure we give animals their space so I didn't want us to get to close.
His colors are so gorgeous!
We were just standing there and then he started to shake his tail and he opened it right up. I can't say I've ever seen the backside of a peacocks tail feathers, but there were still beautiful.
I had to walk around to get a view of the front.
Slowly he turned around for us to see him better. I swear he was showing off!!!
Thankfully Anna and Addison didn't miss out on getting to see him. Ella had her drawing book out the whole time and this is what she drew....
Ella's rendition of a peacock! Pretty good I'd say!!!
After the peacock we went over to see the penguins really quick and then we went to look at all the other Washed Ashore sculptures. Each one had a sign that would tell you things you could try to find such as a flip flop, lighter or a hair brush.
The crazy thing is none of this garbage is painted....they actually sorted through the garbage to find similar colors to make this fish.
Christina and I were a little shocked to see the teeth as they didn't really look like teeth....ahhh!!!! Thankfully none of the kids seemed to notice or care. It gave us a good laugh though!!!
They even made the tail of the fish move.
The seahorse was pretty funky looking, but still amazing!
That's one giant puffin!
The shark was the kids favorite!
Look at those sharp teeth! I think that's Ella's....I'm getting eaten by a shark face!
Now lets go see the real sharks! The kids spent a good amount of time in here and Christina and I got to talk. After awhile we noticed they were all taking a break! Such cute kids!!
Stingrays!
When we left the aquarium we wandered over to the Elephant enclosure where they were having a question and answer time. The kids got to ask a couple questions and then we were off to see more animals.
Gotta love the monkeys!
The tigers were definitely the biggest hit this trip.
She is so gorgeous! The kids were talking about how before sin Adam and Eve were able to actually snuggle with tigers and then we talked about how we will get to in heaven. I can't wait to snuggle a tiger!!!
The tigers twin sister was hanging out outside.
The enclosure is so pretty with that waterfall!
Look at those beautiful stripes!
The other tiger got tired of sitting up so she laid down on her side.
Then her sister came in and started cleaning her neck!!!
Or she could have been kissing her...who knows...it was so sweet though!!!
After cleaning/kissing her sister she went over to this doorway that was closed. Zeke was trying to tell her to come over to the other door so she could go outside again.
Another Washed Ashore sculpture!
The anemones where the last sculpture we saw. We didn't actually look at that many animals this time around so there might be more in other areas of the zoo. We needed to leave early because I need to stop at Costco and then get home with enough time to make dinner since Papa Martin was coming over. We'll just have to go back again to see if there are more. They are going to be there for a while, but I would definitely encourage you to check them out if you can.
Since we knew we'd have to leave soon I decided we should head up to the kids play area. Poor Zeke got pushed off that slide thing that's behind Owen's head. He was okay, but I did talk to the boy who pushed him and told him he should really use his words. Later on I saw him interacting with his older brothers and I could tell why he would push so much. They were older and he was obviously used to behavior like that. Zeke cried and I snuggled him and he was fine afterwards. Christina said I did a good job controlling my Mama bear instincts!
Once it was time to go we hit up the restrooms one last time and then headed out. Zeke was sad because he really wanted to see the wolves and the fox, but I told him that would be the first place we'd go next time we come. He absolutely LOVED the map. He was pretty much looking at the map the whole time. He was even able to tell us where we were and what animals were in what section. I know they have pictures of the animals, but for a little guy it was impressive!
Cute navigator....lets go home!!!
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