Fun Day at the Cleveland Zoo!

Well, I am actually home now after two LONG days of driving.  I didn't get a chance to finish blogging about my Cleveland trip while I was there because I was so busy having fun!  I unloaded the photos from my camera this morning, so I will catch you up on all of that before I move on to this soon to be busy weekend of the 4th.

While we were in Cleveland I really wanted to make a trip to the Cleveland Zoo.  I LOVE zoos and especially love taking the Grands to the zoo.  Seeing everything through a child's eyes make things so much more clear for me; the simple things in life are the best.  We got a little later start than we expected because we stayed up so late the night before playing Mexican Train Dominoes.  This is one of our favorite games and because we talked Hubs into playing it, he insisted that we finish the whole game that night...

We finally got going that morning and headed to the zoo.  I had recently joined our local zoo, which gives me entrance to other zoos around the country at discounted fees,  so we checked to see if the Cleveland Zoo was on that list and it was!  A ticket, which cost $12.50 for an adult was only $6.25 each for Robby, me and one other adult.  This was a really good deal considering how much there was to see at this zoo.

When I pulled my camera out and Hubs pulled his video camera out, he said, "I am going to take all the pictures you want today and not complain about it at all."  WOW!  I wondered if he knew exactly how many I would be taking!

                                          Here's Holli and me ready for our day at the zoo!

The zoo is divided into continents and you are able to get really close to many of the animals for some great photos.  As I began to make my trek through the zoo, the second grade teacher began to come out in me (OK...Hubby said I was like a two year old...) and all I could think about was the teaching possibilities and awesome field trips that could be taken here.  These grand kinds of mine don't stand a chance!

Do you see the little Koala Bear clinging to that tree?  I have loved Koala Bears ever since I was a child and read about them in geography class.  I asked if we would be able to hold one...Caitlin looked at me as if I had lost my mind.  But you know, Koala Bears are like monkeys to me; I just want to hold one!

I took Holli Bug out of her stroller because we saw a sign ahead for a Tree House.  Caitlin said she had never taken her through it and we all know how I am about tree house adventures...we were going through it!

  There is this really cool swinging bridge that carries one to the entrance of the tree house.

Here is a portion of the inside of the tree house.  There is actually a really neat slide that looks like a snake that older children can slide down through the tree house on from the top floor to the bottom.

After taking a couple more photos in the tree house and since Holli was not big enough to go down that snake slide, we found another crawl through snake that Poppi decided to take her through...

On our way to the petting part of the zoo I noticed they were giving camel rides.  I must have been looking longingly at them because Hubby asked if I wanted to get on one.  I really did but told him, "No, that's OK".  But I know if Parker Ann was with me I surely would have said yes!

                                         Here, you got to go in with the sheep and pet them!

I wanted my picture taken with that "Black Sheep" but couldn't get it to stand still long enough for me to get close to it...hmmm.

 I took a few more shots of the sheep since Caitlin and I have our little knitting business that will be starting up again this fall; I thought we could use the photos on our site!

                                                     We love to knit from Merino.

                                            And I have still not given up on getting a goat!

 If I wasn't already excited enough, we rounded the corner to find that you can feed a giraffe here!

Yep!  I could have fed the giraffe.  Instead I just opted to squeeze my way through the crowd and get these great shots of him close up.

                                          Holli had to take a little milk break along the way...

                                                                           And nap!

 And then we came to an area in the zoo that is sure to be EVERY kids' (OK...BIG kids too:  aka; ME!) FAVORITE place to visit. 

                                   It is a discovery area where children can explore nature...

 There are varying levels of rocks in this area with shoots that can be arranged to let water you hand pump run through it.  Younger children just enjoy walking through the rocks and water.

                                       There were lots of stump picnic tables in the area too.

        In the distance you can see a little girl sitting on some rocks that span a replica of a pond.

 Robby, Caitlin and Holli (OUR Native Americans) had to have their picture taken in front of one of the tee-pees that were built in the area.

                                              That little boy is standing near the fox den.

                                      And how cool is the eagle's nest that children can sit in?!

                                                And right next to the area was the carousel.

                                                                Guess who got to ride it?

By the end of the day, we still had not made it to the top of the hill or the rain forest.  There wasn't enough time to do so either so I guess that means when I return to Cleveland I will have to make another trip to this wonderful zoo!