Flashback Friday: Hump Day Birthday at the Zoo

Back in October, our local zoo spent a month celebrating the "birthdays" of each group of animals at the zoo.  We decided to take advantage of the unusually nice autumn weather and visit the zoo on the camels' birthday.

We started off our visit at the wallaby exhibit, and the kids actually stepped outside of their comfort zone and pet one!

The weather was beautiful and the smiles were out.

Then Baylor proved to be the best brother ever and held his sister's purse while she rode a camel.

One camel's name was Molly which of course thrilled our Mollie girl to no end.

The lions were actually down by the viewing window, napping and lounging in the warmth, and we were able to watch them for a while.

Mollie really wanted to see the flamingos, like the ones on her shirt, but they were stinky ... so she held her breath.

The lions weren't the only ones lounging in the warmth that day; the tapir got in on the action as well, getting some midday rest.

We happened upon a zookeeper who was doing a little mini introduction between any kiddo nearby and a snake.  When it came time for the kids to touch it, they both did!

We moved on from the random snake to the bear enclosure.  One of them was pretty lethargic.

But the other one was up and moving around.  Even though the glass was smudged with hand prints on one side and what I guessed was bear slobber on the other, the kids stayed far away from the window as if the bear could somehow get them.

We then made our must-have trip to the tropical house to visit the nocturnal animals, including this caiman who wanted to say, "Hi."

It is now apparently a tradition for us to take a picture of the kids showing off their wingspans.  Honestly, I couldn't have picked a better zoo tradition myself.

It was such a gorgeous day.

And I was one lucky lady to have these two to spend it with.

The Zoo and a Day of Firsts

I'm not sure if it was overly wise of us to attempt to go to the zoo on Memorial Day, but we braved the crowds anyway and visited the zoo in hopes of seeing the otters and the new bear exhibit.  Of course, no trip to the zoo would be complete without first riding the funicular, and since Bryson hadn't ridden it yet we were happy to oblige.  Once at the top, though, Bryson pulled an audible and took us down a different path than we usually take.  We walked near the waterfal, so close that Baylor had to plug his ears at the sound of it.

We wandered around a bit and finally made our way over to see the otter exhibit.  They have a new otter in addition to their old one, and seeing the two of them together was really fun.  At first they were just grooming each other up on the rocks, but they soon went for a swim, delighting the kids to no end.

For whatever reason, I love the exhibit with some of the weirder animals in it.  The capybara wasn't there today, but the tapir and the horned screamer were there just chilling and watching the crowds walk by.  One guy whistled at the bird and got it to scream a little, which was pretty awesome.

Mollie was hoping the flamingos would be there, and sure enough she got her wish.  They were, however, unbelievably stinky today, and we didn't end up staying long.

Besides, the kids were hungry and needed to stop for a raisin break.  I thought for sure I was dressing them too warmly, but as it turns out the weather forecast was really off for today and it ended up being about ten to twenty degrees colder than they had originally predicted.  Yikes!

After the raisin break, we checked out the baboons and some funny-looking birds when one of us asked, "Does anyone want to ride a camel today?" not at all expecting an affirmative answer.  Needless to say, we were all shocked when Mollie said cheerfully, "I do!"

So we did.

Mollie and I each had our first camel ride today, and I have to say, her seat was much more comfortable.  FYI, the hump of a camel is not as soft or forgiving as one might think.

She did amazingly well, even when a guy started to walk us around instead of the girl she was expecting.  I was so thrilled she enjoyed it and was totally riding a high of seeing my daughter, typically timid around animals, be so brave when she pulled out another surprise ...

She wanted to pet the pygmy goats!  Whaaaaaaat?!

And she did!  She pet two goats, one of which had some pretty decent horns.  She was actually enjoying it all until she saw one of the goats start to chew on a dad's shorts, then she high-tailed it out of there; one thing Mollie is not down with is animals messing up clothing.  (She once said she really wanted a dog and when I told her that a dog might slobber on her dress, she immediately retracted her request.  The girl is serious about her clothes.)  But she enjoyed it all the same, and it made me so proud of her to see her so brave.

Baylor was anxious for both our close-up animal encounters, particularly the camel ride, but he didn't freak out about it and was just glad to have us back safe and sound.

We finished out our time at the zoo, making sure to visit the tropical house, Baylor's favorite exhibit.  The ride home was good, but sadly we'd been at the zoo past our usual lunch time and the kids were beyond hungry and got pretty upset as a result.

Regardless, it was a pretty amazing time full of unexpected firsts and lots of exploration.  Can't ask for much more than that!

Chickens and Rabbits and Goats ... Oh My!

Remember last year when we went to Charlevoix?  Well, I apparently forgot to post about our little day trip to the Antrim County Fair, but let me just say, it had quite an effect on my little boy.  One sheep in particular, Fishie, scared the daylights out of him, scarring him for life and ruining farm animals for him forever.

So, being the kind and compassionate mother I am, I joined up with my mom and sister to take Baylor and Amalia to the Kent County Youth Fair.  I guess I was hoping it'd be a kind of cathartic, face-your-fears sort of experience.  Let's just see how it went, shall we?

Baylor was understandably apprehensive upon our arrival.  

(Though he was particularly interested in the fan atop the rabbit barn and talked about it the rest of the day.)

We saw some cute rabbits ...

... but, quiet as they were, he was pretty terrified of them.  From here on out I held him through every barn we went to.

When I pointed out that these rabbits had the same hair color as Daddy, he lightened up a bit.  But trust me, it was very short-lived.

The guinea pigs were difficult to see and were mostly sleeping, so he didn't have too much trouble with them.  But he didn't want to be put down either.

If there was something he was anxious about, I could feel his little body tense up in my arms.  Poor kiddo!

I thought he might actually like the horses; we see a lot on our way to my parents' house and he is always excited to see them.  But, alas, he was almost more terrified of them than he was the rabbits.  *sigh*

Thank goodness he can't read yet!

We watched a horse and a pony get a bath, and though he thought it was interesting he still didn't want to be put down.

These were the miniature horses they use for the kiddie horse ride.  Unfortunately (or fortunately in Baylor's case), that wasn't open yet.

Next we went to the chicken barn.  There were lots of roosters.  Needless to say, it was a bit noisy in there.

And pretty as many of them were, Baylor was upset and begging to leave the entire time we were in there.  Yes, I felt like a bad mom, but I also felt like he should see that there is nothing to be afraid of.

In an outside tent, we encountered this gigantic, beautiful, puffed-up turkey.  His name is Handsome.  He was AWESOME!

We saw some sleeping ducks, which I'm sure Baylor would have ordinarily enjoyed had he not been traumatized by all the cock-a-doodle-dooing in the barn.

This turkey was much less beautiful than the one we saw previously, and when he lunged at us, I thought Baylor was going to pass out or bolt from the fright!

Next up was the goat barn, which luckily wasn't as noisy as I thought it was going to be.  There were lots of goats on leashes milling about with their owners, though, and that put Baylor on edge.

We somehow timed our next barn visit perfectly and visited the pig barn at nap time.  It was wonderfully quiet in there, and I think Baylor almost enjoyed seeing the pigs sleeping.

That is, until this one's leg, seen sticking out of the gate, twitched a little bit and scared the bejeezus out of the little man.

Next up was the beefy cattle barn.  They were HUGE!

And, by and large, quite sleepy.  Mollie was pretty unsettled by the giant animals ...

... to say the least.

As we walked through the barn, we saw a girl asleep on her cow.  No, seriously!

Just next door was the milk cow barn.  They seemed much more docile and were actually quite beautiful.

We finally made it to a non-animal barn, and Baylor was delighted to be free from anxiety for a while.

We bought a couple t-shirts for the kids, then we headed over to the concession stands to grab a bite of lunch.

Not knowing what would be available, I brought lunch for the kiddos; nothing beats a good pbh&j (peanut butter, honey, and jelly), some grapes, and string cheese!  Mollie got the typical veggie and "gruel" (a.k.a., baby oatmeal and milk), with a side of grapes and Kraft American Cheese.  Both kids were satisfied, and I was happy I didn't have to feed them horribly unhealthy fair food.

Baylor did get to try a little bit of an elephant ear, though, and I think he enjoyed it.  It was quite different than the ones we get at Festival, but it was still very good.

We hurried through the last of lunch so we could make it over to another barn for a goat milking contest.  Yes, apparently such things exist.  First they put the goats into these little guillotine-looking contraptions ...

Then the kids sat down and milked them as fast as they could for 1 minute.  It was interesting to see the different techniques and speculate who was going to win.

As it turns out, longer strokes won the race over the short quick movements, and the tall kid (whose head I apparently cut off in the picture) won by a long shot.

Baylor was apprehensive of the whole event ...

... and Mollie mostly just wanted to get down and run around.  Being cooped up all morning is tough on a little girl!

We were going to stay for the next event - some sort of "speed" grooming competition - but it was supposed to last for 45 minutes, so we left before it got started.  Baylor initially walked around ...

... and stopped to have his picture taken in the cut-out board ...

... but the next tent was the sheep tent.  (Cue the ominous music.)  Sweet as they may have looked to most people ...

... they apparently terrified my children.

Especially Baylor ...

... oh, Baylor!

Not even the sight of newly-sheared sheep in turtlenecks could cheer him up!

Though, through his tears, he was able to laugh at these sheep eating their friend's red t-shirt.

I'll admit, some of them looked a little freaky.  Like this one with the bizarre face poof and leg warmers.

With the terror of the sheep tent over with, we headed over to the petting zoo tent.  Quite delightfully, we ran into some adorable baby animals!  Like piglets ...

... a calf ...

... a miniature horse ... (yes, I know it's not necessarily a baby, but it looked like one to the kids)

... a couple of lambs ...

... and some chicks!  Now, I'm not saying the kids weren't scared of the baby animals, but they were much more intrigued by the babies than any other animals they'd seen.

After being in the petting zoo, we stopped to wash our hands.  Baylor wanted to wash his even though he hadn't touched any animals.

He was surprisingly upset to leave given how upset he had been to simply be there in the first place, but we were able to pry him away.  On our way to the car, we saw this little tent and had to snap a picture.  Doesn't it just sound like something you'd do in fourth grade?  "Ooh, take this test and find out if you're going to hell!  I'll give you the answers in algebra, okay?  My cootie catcher is in my other book."

I hated putting Baylor and Mollie through the "torture" of seeing animals at the fair (?!?!?!), but I think it was good for them in the long run.  Hopefully, with increased exposure, they won't be so afraid of farm animals.  We shall see!