Hogle Zoo, SLC

Reese & Gage: such curiosity!

Climbing aboard the "big cats"

(Mary-Gail was scared and ran to me)

Mom & Baby Becs w/

Momma Giraffe and her 7 mo old baby

(the baby was licking the mom's "neck hair" - cute)

Cy snatching the girl's water bottles;

Rebecca desperately signing "WATER!" as she screamed it to us

Mary-Gail and Daddy on-board the bear

Grandma tenderly holding and coaching Rebecca

Rebecca is nervous: she just realized the gorilla moves up & down,

as well as around & around

Reese on her Zebra!

A sad black bear trying to retrieve his ice block from the water

(Saturday was "ICE-BLOCK DAY" @ the zoo)

Another unsuccessful attempt

Tired, hot, sweaty, pooped, and still CUTE!!

(Rebecca is in the process of sneezing)

We took the girls and joined Mom and the Chrisman's for a day at the zoo on Saturday. I was sooo excited to go to the zoo! I seriously hadn't been since I was a kid, even though Tony kept telling me I'd been back "many times." What ev!

We arrived at a late 10:15 am, and after purchasing tickets and slathering on 50+spf sunscreen we marched through the Hogle Zoo gates. I felt like I was one of the kids! My elation elevated when we we informed there was a "big cats show" in the next 15 minutes. Moved by this excitement to see a "big cats show" we abandoned our plan of viewing every exhibit from start to finish and hurried to the end of the zoo where the big cats were housed.

Such a disappointment. There were 100+ people (NO exaggeration here) squished in a tiny area - some sitting, some standing, ALL sweating - waiting for this amazingly great big cats show. I thrive on punctuality and so when the show didn't start on time, I snatched up Rebecca (who had had her 1st breakdown by now) and walked outside. Reports from Mom and the Chrisman's confirmed that I wasn't missing anything "big."

From that point on (mind you we had just entered the zoo only 30 minutes ago), at least one child was having a break-down moment. The extreme heat didn't ease our suffering - or the animals' - and most exhibits the animals were seeking shade from what little shelter they had. I felt immensely self-fish for wanting to see these poor, miserable animals. I can see them in their natural and happy habitats on Animal Planet!

We made the most of our sweaty selves and hiked back to the opening gates to work our way back down the zoo. On our hike back to the start, we stopped at the carousel and Mom got tickets for everyone to ride. The kids LOVED that. We stopped in a shady spot for our lunch and managed to feed every little kids' mouth (albeit not fast enough). Everyone was pooped, but we had to push on. We ended our day with the grand finale: the train ride! I have pictures of me and JoJo on this very train ride when we were little. Happy feelings began to re-enter my sorrowful heart; And...Cy let me ride with him! I was elated. The 1.5 minute train ride was over before I knew it and we were headed back home.