The Zoo

Saturday morning we had plans to go to the zoo. Taye has been asking to see monkeys for a while now, and I realized we are reaching the end of zoo season. So Friday night I started planning. I originally wanted to go to Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, since I have heard it is awesome. Then I visited their site, and laughed and laughed - it costs $18.75/adult and 12.75/child...isn't that funny?? So I Googled, and found the Forest Park Zoo in Springfield, and decided to try there instead.

I had already been having contractions for about 2 hours before we left, but some little contraction weren't going to stop me. Actually, I was a little on the fence about going, since it is a 90 minute drive. In the end I decided that the zoo would be a way more fun way to spend the day than wandering around the house with nothing to focus on but contractions. It turned out I was right.

The first exhibit when we walked in was the monkey exhibit. We had a lot of fun watching them play:


One of my favorites was the new camel. Darius wanted no part in petting him, but Daddy jumped right in:

At one point, Darius and I were standing outside of the Emu pen, and one came walking right up to Darius:


This caused Darius to shriek in terror and run to me so that I could hold him. When I picked him up, he told me, "I don't like that bird ever!" (I don't really blame him, that is one freaky looking bird.)

Next to the Emu was the Kangaroo pen. There was a mother and baby, the baby kept trying to get inside its mother's pouch, with little luck.


He would get about this far, and the mother would move, causing him to fall back out. At that point I was sympathetic with the mother, I wouldn't want anything climbing back in either!


We saw a mountain lion:


And 'baby jaguar:'

Our last stop was Alligator Alley:


After we finished with the animals, we stopped at the zoo playground. As usual, Daddy had the most fun:


Darius "taking a shower:"