Ahhhh the Zoo!
Colt asked me what I wanted to do in San Diego and I told him go to the Zoo! He said "But you've already been to the zoo." It's kind of like going to Lake Powell fishing even though you've already been there, or the Boulder Mountains to fish......aaahhh! Now we're speaking the same language!
I was so excited to go to the zoo with the girls! While Daddy had to attend meetings, we got to have such a fun day! The girls would call him on his breaks and say that he was missing "such fun!"
When we first got there we were told that the Baby Panda was on exhibit, but only for a little while in the morning. We hurried right over to see her. Silver was so excited to see a baby and a momma panda. But when she got there she said 'Oh NO! They're Dead!! They were both sleeping in the branches, totally sprawled out hanging limp. After learning they were just sleeping she was sad they weren't awake but she felt much better that they weren't dead!
We then hopped on a bus that took us all through the park - this was great as there was no way we could have visited everything in one day, so we got a grand overview plus some interesting info about the zoo and the animals.
There were even shows that we got to see! A walrus one was super funny and we even got to see birds of prey perform too! The map I am holding was SUPER fun! The girls got such a kick with their maps finding out where we were at and where we needed to go to get to the next place!
The one thing we didn't get to see was a Cheetah for Silver. She even wore her pink cheetah pants and her cheetah shoes. The Cheetas are tame and were off-exhibit or in another part of the park each time we tried to find them.
Summer and Silver
River and Summer
Silver, Summer, River
River was NOT going to ride the sky-tram. She has always been hesitant to do new things and I've wondered how much to push with her, when to say we are doing it and when to say it's too much for her right now. A good friend's advice was to push in certain things but not to push too hard to loose their trust.
I felt this was a great one to push on. (Now Splash Mountain at DisneyLand was something I felt I would loose her trust on - so we skipped that one for now).
She was NOT happy about it and dreaded the thought of doing it most of the morning. We watched how the people loaded in and out and then took the plunge.
She ended up LOVING it and we did it over and over again! The girls loved looking down at the tiny animals below and seeing everything layed out from above.
The Sky Tram ended up being a highlight of the trip. Each tram had a picture on the outside of it. They would hope and guess which they would get. We had a Panda, Polar Bear, Cheetah, Frog, Butterfly, etc. Each time they were So excited about which one they would get, and we never got the same one twice.
River learned a valuable lesson about trusting Mom that it would be okay - things can be scary to think about, but actually doing them isn't so bad. Sure it's scary to do something for the first time, but courage is being scared, and doing it anyway.
VIDEO: River talking about Mr Carrots. River's favorite animal since she has been 2 years old and visited the SanDiego Zoo has been polar bears. The bears were so interactive when she was 2, diving in the water and eating carrots. We saw them on the bus in the morning and they were sleeping then. I hoped they would be awake for her. They were! One was in the water swimming back and forth and the other was munching on her carrots!
River just watched and watched and visited with her old friend! In first grade each child got to bring their favorite movie to school for their birthday. River brought a Netflix show about feeding time at the zoo. They show several animals eating at different zoos throughout the world. The one on polar bears is at the SanDiego zoo with our very own "Mr Carrots" She tells the class during her birthday party that if you look close at the video you might even see me and my sisters because "we were there!!" Maybe we were there the day they made this movie! It was really sweet!
Summer: "biggest book ever!"
The girls were asking for things to buy from the minute we walked through the zoo gates. There are shops and stuffed animal displays throughout the zoo. I told them to look at everything throughout the day and not to ask for anything. They could tell me what they liked, but they couldn't ask me to buy it for them.
At the end of the day I would let them each pick something under $10. It was amazing that I didn't hear another word about wanting something.
One thing River did mention throughout the day is how much she liked the art stations. We would stop and watch them draw throughout the day. Some would do face paint, other handprints that they would make into animal shapes. Our favorites were the caricatures. River decided she would like a caricature. She wanted something that would last and she could remember our experience by. So she picked out which artist she liked best - her style of drawing was fun and cute.
River picked up a flower early in the day on the ground that had fallen off a gorgeous tree - SanDiego Zoo not only has an impressive animal display, but their landscaping is impressive! Tons of plants that are native to the areas where the animals are coming from. Tropical, lush, amazing variety.
She tucked the flower behind her ear for the portrait.
She even practiced her smile in the mirror after seeing her draw to decide if she wanted teeth to show or no teeth in her picture.
Silver and Summer decided that was going to be their gift too. Silver with her puppy she packed around all day! River has always loved drawing and art and we asked the artist lots of questions about learning to draw and color. River got home and started drawing her sisters and having them sit still so she could draw their faces and their clothes.
For her birthday she will get a "Prismacolor" set of woodless square colored pencils just like the SanDeigo artists have.
Can you see the wallup bruise on Silver's left eye? Summer was running and tripped and skinned her knee. Screaming I took her to a bench to sit down. I asked River and Silver to go look at the tigers just in front of our bench while I took care of Summer. Silver was so excited looking at the tigers that she turned to run to tell me all about it and ran smack into a sign smacking her eye. Here I am with two screaming children! Summer finally calmed down so I was just carrying a still-sobbing Silver and turned around to make sure Summer and River were following - I came too close to a textured mud wall and scraped Silver's back across the wall. A fresh batch of owies and screaming. Sigh. She had such a Rough time!
Time for a snow cone! We bought one big enough for all of us to share - it was in a flower shaped cup that the girls thought was SO cool! What a special memory finding a little shady spot to dip our 4 spoons into the flower cup for a cool treat as the tears slowly stopped falling :)
Also notice Silver's pretty yellow necklace in the above picture. This was the clip for Colt's nametag for his meeting. When he left early that morning before the girls woke up he couldn't find it and finally had to leave without it. Silver had put it in a special place the night before and promptly found it and put it on first thing that morning. She thought it was SO neat - we put a key on it and she had the magic key to unlock all the special places on our zoo-adventure! She would unlock magic tunnels and paths through the jungle and unlock which way to go. River would read the map and tell us which road to take aand then Silver would unlock the path.
At the hippo tank - Mommy and Baby swimming around.
Flamingos!
Another pure-inspiration moment was going through the gift shop at the end of the day. I gave the kids the camera and had them take pictures of the things that they liked. I wound up with a camera full of pictures and happy kids that didn't whine about getting this or that.
As we were leaving the park (seriously I bet we were the last ones) each girl got her own shiny penny to squish into an animal. River chose a snow leopard, Silver had the one above with multiple animals including a Panda and Summer got Macaws!
A Beautiful Day Filled with Special Memories!
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