“Mama’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow. Mama’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow and we can stay all day…GOING TO THE ZOO, ZOO, ZOO HOW ABOUT YOU YOU YOU, GOING TO THE ZOO, ZOO, ZOO HOW ABOUT YOU YOU YOU?”
Gotta love how Raffi sticks in the brain!
We sing this song all the time. We go to the zoo all the time, as the one in DC is open year round and FREE. Yep, you heard me. Free. We try to make it at least once every two weeks or so an for sure make it more than once a month. It’s awesome, and I find myself telling Milo-without looking at the signs- “Look, it’s the Provost’s Squirrel!” or “See how funny the Ring-tailed Lemur looks up on that branch!” I’m a total zoobie (and yes, I went to BYU for a time, too:)
Today we braved the cold, which actually wasn’t bad, and headed to Utah’s local zoo, Hogle. When I pulled up at 10am there was one other car in the lot. Perfect!
Rachele and Beckham met us a few minutes later, and my mother in law let us in on her pass, so today’s visit was also FREE;)
To our enjoyment, most every animal was out and about. Or, if inside, readily available to see. The only one’s we really missed out on were the elephants, but, these Rhino’s were almost as fun.
Luckily, we both brought strollers. I forgot how loonngg the pathway at Hogle Zoo is! They were content sitting bundled up and watching all of the creatures from their seats for a while.
The Carousel was a big hit for the first half of the ride. Milo (aka. I) chose a zebra to ride. After a minute or two both boys were ready to be off of those crazy moving animals! One of Milo’s new phrases is “Up, please” and that’s when I know he’s done.
Beckham rode the leopard, and a little while later we saw a real leopard! It is huge and beautiful and was pacing as if ready for lunch. Very cool.
Here we are. These cute boys sure are fun. Look how they have almost identical noses! I’ve never noticed that before!
The giraffes were all indoors, which was nice because we let the boys run around for a while. The were all licking the walls, which was kind of weird. Their tongues are so long and purple they are kind of creepy. This one had these boxes of pine cones and antlers to play with and would stick that tongue down inside, grab a pine cone, pull it all the way to the box-edge, then not be able to get it out! Sort of an interesting game, I guess.
We also saw huge gorillas, orangutans, snakes, birds, a white wolf, three majestic tigers, some porcupines, tamarins, meerkats, tortoises the size of kitchen tables, a fluorescent pink spoonbill, bat-eared foxes, lemurs, monkeys, peacocks, camels, deer, and more and more.
If you’re looking for a fun, winter, seriously-by-yourself-in-the-park activity, Hogle may be the place!
