Binder Park Zoo, As A Family

One Saturday, we loaded up, a little late in the day, and made the trip down to Binder Park Zoo.  We arrived just a few hours before closing, so we didn't have the opportunity to make it through the entire zoo.  We did manage to see a few things that William and I had to skip on previously though.

Prairie Dogs, so exotic!

I think they were pretending to be miners?

We were too late to feed the giraffes, and lots of the animals were restless in anticipation of dinner.  So, they were active, but I would not have wanted to go near the lions!

Everyone saved some of their spending money for the carousel, except for Alice, since she's ridden the carousel "lots of times."  She did want to pose by the impressive Lego giraffe while we waited though.

"Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and they are still terrorizing the ants!

We are already discussing a return trip!

For our return trip, we took the scenic back way, and found a cute little drive-in in the village of Bellevue.

Our order was split into root beer floats & chocolate milkshakes.  We were a few miles down the road (way out in the country) when Emily starts fussing that Juliet dropped her shake and she can't reach it.*  Since there was nothing to be done, we just kept on.  This is before the milkshake fall:

As they were carrying the remainder of the treats and any goodies or trash they'd collected from the day, William accidentally dropped his on the porch.  I gave him a squeegee and a bucket of water.  He probably cleaned the porch for 20 minutes!  Grace wanted to help too, but she was put in charge of water, William continued to man the squeegee.

It is such a fun zoo, and I'm sure all the falling treats will make this trip all the more memorable.

later days

*Emily is so responsible.

Kindergarten Field Trip: Binder Park Zoo

William's end of year field trip was down to the Binder Park Zoo.  I'd never been, so I was excited to join them for a fun day.  

We woke up to thunder and pouring rain, but it managed to pass over and left us be the entire day!  It was warm, and sometimes the trees would sprinkle us with residual rain droplets, but the weather treated us well.

The park is down in Battle Creek, which is about 45 minutes away.  I only had two charges, William and his friend who has been with him for two years now!

Most of the zoo is a raised wooden platform through dense forest.  The exhibits are large, many have multiple speices in them!

I don't know how the prairie dogs feel up here, their coats look much thicker than I remember from my time in Lubbock.

The zoo has a massive addition, so they provide a tram to carry visitors.  It was quite a line when we arrived, and longer by the time we loaded.  We almost missed William's window to feed the giraffes.

The path is fairly linear, so when you are walking with a group, it's likely that you'll stick with that group as you go.

My group preferred the younger giraffe to the adult.

The line was so long for the tram on the way back, and we needed to meet our group for lunch, so we walked it.  They were both whiny, so we took a break at the tram station.

It was quite a walk out to the lunch pavillion, but we didn't miss lunch, in fact, we were some of the first to arrive.

After lunch, it was time to head back.  Lots of the kindergartners crashed, including my favorite.

It was a good time, hopefully I'll be able to join the twins next year.  And maybe, we can go down as a family this summer, so that we aren't rushing through the exhibits.

later days