Zoo Day!

Hannah's pre-school went on a field trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, and I went as a chaperone. Last minute, I decided to take Rasy and her mama with us and I'm so glad I did!

It was my first time to that zoo, and I LOVED it! All the animals are REALLY close and interactive, and there were not very many people there at all.

The whole zoo is built on the side of a mountain, so the view was spectacular.

It was cold and starting to spit snow up in Denver, so we were a bit worried about the weather, but down in the springs it was clear blue skies and 70's! Perfect Zoo Day weather!

Most of the main exhibits have large resin animals around them for the kids to climb and play on. It was really funny how many of the pre-schoolers stopped and shouted, "Look! The giraffe's tummy!"

I guess it never occurred to me that it would be a novelty to see a giraffe's tummy, but pretty much every single kid at one point of another mentioned it :)

The giraffe exhibit itself was the best I've ever seen! They have it built so their heads come right up to where we were standing, and you can feed them lettuce.

Here's a giraffe trying to figure out who from the pre-school class was going to be brave enough to feed him!

They even let us pet them!

Here is one just chillin' near Mama Barza.

The elephants were also really close and fun.

This is one example of the awesome view we had walking around the zoo!

You have to read the sign to get this one... kinda disturbing, but funny just the same :)

I thought the statue of a rhino going into the bushes was a little backwards, and then I read the sign and saw the puddle of water on the ground.... putting the pieces together I told the kids to stand on the wet spot for a picture :)

 Sure enough it is motion activated and started spraying.... when they turned around and saw where the water was coming from they both freaked out!

Once I assured them it was just water they wanted to go back and do it again and again and again!

Luckily they had this cool plane close by to explore, and that distracted them enough for us to move on!

Here are a few of the other things we got to see there!

Hannah's favorite animal... the kayak!

You have to look up on the rock in this one, but there was a lioness laying up there just staring at the kids.

Here's a closer look at her.

This monkey was particularly interested in Hannah.

She just stood there talking to him, and it looked like he was listening!

Rasy's favorite friend of the day, a chipmunk! He was quite domesticated, and not at all afraid to come begging for food... so we gave him a graham cracker!

He took it right out of my hand, and then when right up to Levi's toes and sniffed them :)

I think he was Levi's favorite too :)

Here are a few other fun things we saw:

And, a Kimodo Dragon! Nathan didn't believe me that this was a dragon until he read the sign. Then he thought it was super cool that the zoo had a dragon!

This sloth was outside of his cage, just relaxing in a large branch leaning on his cage.

It was a beautiful and fun day at the zoo, and I will definitely be going back to that zoo!

Thanks to Rasy and her mama for joining us and making it thrice the fun :)