Brookfield Zoo!

For Jeremy's second birthday, we were blessed to receive a two-year membership to the Brookfield Zoo. We love it there, as there's always plenty for the kids to do and see. I asked Phil to take a look at his schedule to see when he could take a day off so we could go. He found a day in July, and we withheld the information from the kids until the morning of, as we knew we'd never hear the end of the "how many more days" question.

We got on the road, and the kids were SO excited. We had a wonderful time, seeing all the animals and enjoying the beautiful day. The featured new exhibit was about dinosaurs, and surprisingly both kids were giddy to see them. After forking out extra money, we walked through the exhibit, and Riley was able to use the controls and operate a few of the faux animals.

One of the many dinosaurs.

The gigantic T-Rex.

A stegosaurus.

After stopping for lunch, the kids ran around on the playground to try to get rid of some energy. Again, we picked a beautiful day, full of sunshine and not too many people. I think the key is to go during the middle of the week.

Riley scoping out the slide.

Jeremy enjoying himself.

After lunch, we walked around for a bit and actually ran into one of my girlfriends who I went to high school with. She had her three kids with her, and it was so funny and random to see her with her family! Once we said our good-byes, we made our way over to the Children's Zoo. This is perhaps the biggest hit for the kids. Every time we go, they run straight for the goat area to brush the animals. I let Phil take the kids over there, and he got plenty of pictures.

The kids fighting over the brush.

lRiley brushing the goat.

Same goat, different angle.

We decided to hit the road shortly thereafter as all parties were getting tired. The kids fell asleep in the car (as always), and it was another wonderful zoo outing.

Outside the monkey house with the two river otters.

Mom and the kids. Notice the huge dinosaur in the back.
It actually shot water out to guests below.