Roaming Around Brookfield Zoo

One of our favorite ways to tire the boys out is a trip to Brookfield Zoo. It tends to tire all of us out, actually, and the kids love learning about all the different animals.

We have a membership, so we go at least a few times every year. This time, we went with Grandma Toni, Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Jay.

Since this was only a few days after Henry's birthday, we made sure to visit the monkey house. Monkeys are Henry's favorite animal. He was mesmerized staring at them.

"Muh-key! Eee-ee-ooo--ooo!"

Henry made a point of making monkey noises and pointing at all the different monkeys, gorillas, etc. He really liked the mama and baby we saw. Nick was interested as well.

Nick measured his hand against a gorilla's hand.

"Isn't my new hat cool? My head got bigger. My hand is still pretty small, though."

We visited the bird house, and Nick tried to imitate the bird. We actually told him to smile, but this is what we got. I'm assuming he was making a bird face. Either that or he was constipated.

Henry got really excited when we found the macaws. We had been looking for them since we entered the zoo.

I had Henry wear his "safari outfit," though he kept taking off his hat. It's funny how I buy all of these adorable hats and I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to make the kids keep them on their heads.

Henry ended up walking more than he does usually, mostly because he got grumpy in the stroller. Very grumpy.

See how much happier Henry is outside of the stroller? No, really, this is happier.

Nick's favorite exhibit is The Living Coast. He adores the giant wave that comes in from the ceiling.

Henry wasn't so sure about it at first, but then he was intrigued.

The penguins are probably Nick' favorite part of his favorite exhibit. His favorite stuffed animal is named "Penguidy" and is a stuffed penguin from Brookfield, so I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that he prefers these waddling cold-weather birds. Henry liked them, too. He couldn't say penguin, though.

"irr-dee!" (That's how Henry says "birdy.")

So long as the weather is warm, we always let the boys run around in the splashing area outside The Living Coast.

I tend to just strip the kids down to their diapers so that they're not sloshing around the whole day. One day, when Nick doesn't wear diapers anymore, (that day has got to come eventually) I'll have to bring an extra pair of shorts for him.

Henry kept letting the water spray right in his face, and then running away shrieking. Then he'd do it again. Nick liked standing on the spray nozzles and running around screaming.

Here's some video, just in case you don't have enough running around and shrieking in your day.

I love these impromptu splash areas for kids. I think it's great that they can run out their energy between visits to animal exhibits. I'm glad that we have a membership, though. I don't feel like we have to visit the whole zoo, or even more than a few exhibits. We can always go back another day.