Hot Fun in the Summertime at the Zoo

On our trip to the aquarium last month, Riley and I decided we should become members of Audubon. So we signed up that day and can now get into the aquarium, the insectarium, and the zoo for *free* for an entire year.

Last week I thought it might be fun to visit the zoo with Aunt E and Kate. So we loaded the kids up, made sure we had plenty of drinks and sunscreen, and braved the heat of the day.

This was Kate’s first trip to the zoo. It seemed like she enjoyed herself, although she was a bit limited on what she could see from her stroller. But I’m sure it won’t be long before she’s running around after Riley-bean.

This was Rory’s first trip to the zoo, too, but he really couldn’t see anything from inside his seat. He actually slept a decent portion of our time there, which was great. But by the time we got back to the car he was seriously sweating. Poor thing.

Riley was mostly enamored with the water features of the animals’ enclosures, rather than the animals themselves. However, he did say later that the monkeys were his favorite. He had a nice little conversation with that bronze gorilla. They’re pals now.

  

And he really would have liked to play on Monkey Hill, but I wasn’t prepared for that. We’ll just have to go back another day to do that and the splash pad, crossing our fingers it’s not too crowded when we do.

After walking around for about an hour, we took a much needed break inside the restaurant in the swamp area. Kate had a bottle, Riley had gummies and juice, and Erin, Rory, and I relished the air conditioning.

When we were walking out of the swamp exhibit and heading towards the sea lions, we heard a bird singing. Riley stopped dead in his tracks, listened, and said, “I think that’s a gun. I think that’s a gun shooting missiles.” Wonk potatoes.

Thanks for coming with us, Aunt E and Kate! We’ll have to go back again soon…..that is, if we can stand the heat again.