One last Hurrah

We've been wanting to check out Chicago's free zoo since we moved here, so the week before school started we grabbed some friends, put on our brave faces, took on the Chicago drivers and headed down. While the zoo is free, the parking is not, but it still makes it cheaper than paying admission for 6 plus the parking at the other zoo's. I would have to say, that it is a pretty good zoo...if you live in Chicago. Its kind of incorporated into this huge park, so people can just walk in and out during their afternoon strolls. I dont know that for us, if it was worth the drive, but it would be awesome if you were in walking distance and needed something fun to do. Unfortunately for us, the majority of the animals were either asleep or mysteriously missing from the exhibit. Maybe it was just an off day.

Anyway, because of that most the pictures were of my own little animals. They're cuter anyway...on most days. (: Here we are along with Katelins friend who came along, actually upon departure as we were rushing to get to our cars before we got charged an extra 12 bucks for parking. Have to get a picture in front of the entrance!
I dont know where it came from, but Madi loves snakes. One of the zoo workers actually came up to us and invited us into a little snake demo where the kids got to pet this boa afterwards.
I was surprised Zack even pet it... (love the tongue :) )
and Brylee as well, even though the camera delayed and got the shot right after she touched it.
Outside the snake room we came across the naked mole rats. My kids loved it because we had recently been reading the book "Naked Mole Rat gets Dressed" at home. Just as a side note, its by one of my favorite childrens books authors, Mo Willems. If you get a chance to read any of his books, do it. I find them very cute, and highly entertaining. But, I prefer childrens books over adult books, so maybe thats just me. Anywho....here is Brylee looking at the baby naked mole rats.

The gorillas were one of the animals actually on display. I think this was the best part of the zoo. Madi comparing hand sizes.

My little modern day ape.

Hanging out with his fellow monkeys.

Oh look, there's an animal!...oh wait its another brass one. Oh well, hop on!

I love this next picture, because they all look like friends. So happy! Actually, this is one of the only times Brylee was being happy. At the start of our zoo experience, she stood up in her stroller while I was still pushing it, and I of course ran her over and she fell and skinned her knee. The majority of the time she was crying with blood gushing out of it and wanting me to carry her. It wasnt until she saw the fish, near the end, that she decided to walk again and be happy.

Zack felt left out.

The kids entertained themselves by climbing on or up everything they could.

Pretending to be a train.

At the end, we went into the kids zoo section where they all climbed through this hanging climbing obstacle course thing.

Brylee watched them go through and kept crying to go in with them, but I knew with her hurt knee, and being the size she is, she would just get stuck, or hurt again. Against my better judgement I caved and let her go in with Katelin the second time around. After Katelin struggled to lift her up the first step, she decided she wouldnt go any further. I had to send Madi in to rescue her, since Katelin couldnt get her down. All the poor kids waiting their turn in line, had to wait a little longer. Sigh ...

At that point we realized we had to get back to our cars before our time went into another hour of charged parking. For anyone wanting to go to this zoo, I would recommend starting where we ended. The kids didnt want to leave after we got there, and we wish we had more time in the fun area. Honestly, next time, I think Ill pay the extra and go to a zoo where we can actually see animals on display. It wasnt bad, just a one time is good experience. There are so many better things to see in Chicago.