The Zoo--- Winter Style

The Hogle Zoo was free last Wednesday. They wanted to thank everyone for passing legislation for more funding. I was happy with the thank you because I have always been curious as to what went on at the Zoo in the winter and now I know without having to spend $16. So Leah and I went after pre-school for a couple hours before I went to work and had a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed our time at the zoo better during the winter than when we go in the summer. It was lightly snowing and hardly anyone was there...it was so quiet that it felt like we owned the zoo. We were able to see animals that don't come out during the summer. Example, the cougars were prowling around their enclosure and in the summer they are always tucked in a cool nook. Leah loved the giraffe's. No really...she LOVED them. She kept saying in her little Leah voice..."ohhhh I LOVE them. ohhh I reaally LOVE them....Mommy, the giraffe's really LOVE me too." Her favorite animals were the giraffe's.


So if you know Leah and how much she likes to talk or "chirp" you can only imagine this scene. She was really excited to be at the zoo and literally never stopped talking while we were there. I honestly at times had to walk away from an exhibit until other visitors left because I was afraid Leah was ruining the experience for people. Leah went on and on about how the animals eat snow, the baby monkeys loving their mommies, how the cougars are nice and do not want to eat her, how the gorilla is scared and would like to come down...basically educating me all about how the animal world works.

My favorite was the tiger. We were walking through the Himalayan Cat exhibit and I thought that no way the tiger would be out...it's never out (in the summer.) I heard a gasp behind me and I turned around, this HUGE tiger came out of no where and I was face to face with it. It freaked me out. I had no idea they were that big. It was just hanging out in the snow, rolling around and roaring/growling every 30 sec. Leah was a little bit speechless for a minute and said, "it's scary." It was the coolest thing ever.
Before we left Leah was able to choose what animal she wanted to ride on the carousel. No one was riding at all, probably because it was free to get into the Zoo and people were cheap but we are big spenders and so owned the carousel. What was also awesome was that during the ride they were playing "I like to move it move it" from Madagascar. Leah could not have been happier, pure joy. When she got off and was saying goodbye to the operator she turned and told me, "Mommy, one day they will give me back my ticket so I can ride again!" Good times.