Monday was a day off from school, and as Xavier had been asking for a while, I figured it would be as good a day as any to go to the zoo. Thankfully the weather cooperated and while a little chilly at least it wasn’t raining, which is pretty good for Seattle.
No, I don’t know what he’s looking at but Xavier is very intent, whatever it is.
After the penguins, which are right next to the entrance (well, one of them anyway) we went into the building that used to be the Nocturnal House but is now referred to as the Reptile House (nobody I know uses the Day Exhibits name it officially has). The kids love it when I take them to the zoo because mom won’t go in here (snakes). She will, however, take them in to see the spiders in the Bug World building – I can barely stand walking past that it.
Then it was on to the Small-Clawed Otters. Only the otters weren’t out. The kids spent a bit of time playing in the bamboo playground just outside the exhibit.
Otters, where are you?
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Ninja? I don’t think so.
August was pretending to be a ninja in the “forest” and wound up hurting himself. I’m sorry the picture is blurry, it was the best I could do. But the fact that I had 4 kids running in different directions, even in a small area, and was able to (at least appear to) keep an eye on each of them, well, I feel kind of luck to have pictures at all.
Interestingly there is a zip line there. It’s about 6 feet long but proved to have a long line of kids waiting to take their turn, and mine were no exception.
What was bothersome about this was the zip line handles were rather high up. It was almost a two adult affair in order to get a kid going. Since I was by myself August helped out a bit, as did Déla.
Not only did my kids try the zip line, they got back in line to do it again. And again. And again. Yes, even Xavier. Eventually I had to gently (forcefully and with much protest) get the kids to move on to other areas of the zoo. We were there to see the animals, after all.
.
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By the way, do you know how hard it is to get a picture of your kids on a zip line that is merely 6 feet in length and you have to be there to help get them on? You barely have time to hoist them up and get your camera out let alone turned on and focused before the “ride” is over.
This was as still as I could get them. This was the third take for this picture, and each of them somebody was moving.
After the otters, well, the absence of them, we went to see the Sloth Bear. Which wasn’t there. Other animals were, however, such as the Orangutans, Siamangs, elephants, and giraffes. The Red Pandas were also not in their enclosure.
After swinging by the penguins again we headed home and had lunch. While disappointed at the number of animals we wanted to see that we couldn’t (two of the kids’ first choice of exhibits was the otters) it was still a solid morning at the zoo.