Sunday, September 21, 2008

Visting The Mother Ship

We had been promising the girls we would go to the zoo for the last two weeks. So on Labor day we decided to head to Grand Rapids to see the zoo and maybe do a little shopping while we were there. To our dismay the zoo had a water main break and they were closed for the day. After talking up the zoo so much and getting the girls so excited we felt we could just turn around and go home. So we headed off to BattleCreek to the Binder Park Zoo. I'm so glad we did. It was amazing. There was so much to see and do. We hit the cafe first to grab something to eat ( it was lunchtime by then) There were peacocks wandering around the cafe looking for scraps. Riley and Piper tried to catch one. The one thing Riley wanted to do was pet the Giraffes. I kept trying to explain to her we could look but not be able to touch them. The exhibit where the giraffes were was a two mile hike up a hill. There was a tram to transport visitors up and down the only catch was you couldn't bring the wagon with you. The stroller yes, wagon, no. We didn't want to be chasing or caring the girls around while we where there so we began the two mile hike up the hill. Man it was hot that day! It was good exercise right?! When we got up there it was set up like a little African village. The girls discovered drums you could beat on and they liked having their picture taken with the giraffe statue. When we finally got to the giraffes, we discovered you could buy special cookies to feed them and yes you could pet them. That made Riley's day if not her entire four years of existence. The little monkey had the nerve to tell me, "See Mama, you can pet them" Smart alec, gets it from her dad. I think Piper was disappointed to see that the giraffes weren't dancing. (Her favorite book is Giraffes Can't Dance. )We saw the zebras,wild dogs, birds and of course monkeys. We couldn't go to the zoo and not see the monkeys right?!
We headed back down and passed the stand where you could buy stuffed animals that you stuffed yourself. We had already passed this once and Ben had told them we'll see. Well while we had been walking around, Piper had been hanging her head outside the wagon. After several warnings to keep her head in, Ben went to make a turn and Piper caught her ear on the fence.He felt horrible. So now as Ben is getting ready to say no, Pipe starts complaining about her ear.Stupid this girl is not and knows Daddy is a big softie. So Riley got her Snow Leopard, Piper her Nemo (a new obsession) and Aubrey, her monkey. After riding the carousel we headed over to the petting zoo. They got to pet rabbits, horses, goats, ect. The goats they got to feed and brush. Ben at one point had a small herd around him. He is now the Goat Whisperer. Aubrey didn't care for them. One of them bleeped(Is that what they do?) at her and she started screaming. After that we moved on. All in all we had a great day. The girls were fantastic considering they missed naptime and had a lot of fun. As we loaded them all in the van, Riley asks " Hey Mama, When are we going to go to the zoo?" Kids say the darnest things!











1 comment:

Jen said...

So cute! I love the photos. I can just imagine walking around with you all at the zoo... I'm thinking about taking Rylan this week but we'll see. Thanks again... miss you.