Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Strand summer fun at the Minnesota Zoo

I am absolutely determined to have a fun summer for my kids (and us) despite not being able to really travel. I really enjoy being a tourist and doing fun things and we have never been to the Minnesota Zoo so that was on our list. We love zoos, mostly because we love seeing animals we know we'll likely never see in the wild but we also really like reading the signs and learning something new. 

Unfortunately, I am also ridiculously pregnant and it's summer time so I was prepared for a little bit of swelling and lots of walking. I ended up swelling up three times my normal size and paying the price for walking four hours straight the next day but it was totally worth it! 

Some of the favorite exhibits were the buffalo, which is Jackson's favorite animal. We even saw a pretty tiny one!

Obviously the best exhibit were the GOATS. I would have walked from one end of the zoo to the other to see these. (Which is exactly what I did!) I was over the top excited to find out that we could go into their little area and commune with the goats. I could have stayed there all day but after 15 minutes Matt was giving me The Look like he wanted to go.
But not before we got photos! Even Penelope got to hang out with the goats. This one put it's hoof on her tray and they had a great time.
She clearly wanted to pet it and take it home. Dad said no because he is a fun killer.
I absolutely had to take a goat selfie, because that's what you do when you are in a goat corral.
The kids (and some random kid who totally photo bombed us) loved this goat. He looked super sad and came right over to us wanting love.
Olivia found these two smaller ones, next to their mama (not pictured) so she wanted to love them. You'll notice the goat behind her tried to climb on her and that's when she decided she wasn't going to sit down anymore. 

Jackson absolutely LOVED this one. He kept hugging it and the goat was totally enjoying itself. 
Olivia said this is the one she wanted to take home. Dad said no. People laughed at us. Little did they know we were totally serious. 

Jackson agreed, this mellow one was probably our best fit. But again, Dad said no.  
So after Matt made us walk away from the goats, and I cannot emphasize how sad we were about that, we found a new area of the zoo to explore. Penelope was missing nap time and I kept telling Matt she'd stop crying and whining if you just let her out of the stroller to walk around. So we went to the jungle area where it's a little more contained and let her roam with us holding her hand.
CLEARLY, I was right because look at how happy that girl is! She thought the zoo was pretty fun and kept doing her version of pointing at things, then running to the next exhibit, touching new things, it was so fun to watch her.
Olivia found flamingos! I call her my flamingo because of her skinny legs and knobby knees so I took her picture, of course.
 Jackson didn't want to be excluded, so there he is.
Overall? The zoo was amazing. It's not as great as the Omaha Zoo that we visited, but that zoo is so special I think it'll be hard to find one that compares. But the Minnesota Zoo is a little over two hours from our home, a pretty decent drive, and it was a fun afternoon. I think there were parts we didn't see but I was really hurting, I was starting to contract and I was swelling so quickly despite a LOT of water having been consumed, so we left after four hours. We easily could have spent far more time. I also recommend visiting the zoo when it isn't quite so warm, it was about 85 that day and despite the slight breeze.

So on the way out I kept telling my family to slow down, that I really couldn't walk very fast. When I say I was hurting? I was hurting. Fetus Four was sitting so low and I was trying to walk through the contractions and just get to the damn van but man....
... you see those tiny people? Yeah, that's my family. That's their version of "wait up for mom". They were all buckled and ready to go by the time I got there and then annoyed that I had to take a minute to climb into my seat. Totally ridiculous, folks. 

Anyways. It was SUCH a great day. We all agreed we would be back, perhaps in the spring or in the fall so it's a bit cooler. The food amenities at the zoo were pretty diverse, but they only accept Visa or Mastercard, so that's something to take into consideration before you go. But the entire zoo complex is very clean and we saw so many employees around cleaning surfaces, picking up garbage, and generally keeping the place looking nice so big compliments for that. If you are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and looking for a fun thing to do, I highly recommend this zoo- super fun! 

2 comments:

Mattie @ Northwest Native said...

I LOVE how much you love goats because I love them too!!!

Elizabeth said...

Adorable photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Nice blog.

Elizabeth
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