​Sometimes, you just have to get out of the house. After asking the kids where they wanted to go, we decided (based on Madeline’s recommendation) to go to the zoo. We piled in the car and headed south, stopping at Panera bread for sandwiches, soup, and of course cookies. After eating lunch, we headed to the zoo, only to encounter a long line of cars headed up the mountain. It turned out, lucky for us, that the zoo was having a special rate and so it was very crowded. One of the advantages of going in the afternoon (other than it being warm) is that most families had already started heading out, so there was plenty of zoo for us to explore without lots of people. We started out by feeding the giraffes, which is always a highlight. Madeline was a bit scared to feed the adult giraffes, but she fed the baby giraffe...even though its about 6 feet taller than her. After the giraffes, we headed to the monkey house, but Madeline wasn’t having any of that because of the smell. We then went to the reptile house where Madeline was very excited by a king snake that was crawling around outside. She pulled up a little chair and just watched it slither around. She wasn’t scared at all. Then we went for a ride on the carrousel. Madeline spent the rest of the day asking if we could go back to the carrousel, so it clearly was a hit, even with the other kids. We saw a grizzly bear, snow leopard, tiger, lion, and cheetah. All the animals were out and about. One of the best things we did was feed the parrots and budgies. The kids got little popsicle sticks covered with seeds and then they fed that to the birds. We spent about 30 minutes trying to get the birds to sit on our hands or arms while we fed them. It was a lot of fun. We saw an alligator and got to pet a wallaby. In all, it was a pretty incredible day at the zoo and a fun day with the family.

Madeline knows her animals and the sounds that they make so well for a 2 year old.  After seeing her excitement at the Atlanta Aquarium earlier this month I knew that she would get such a kick out of visiting the animals at the zoo.  After doing a quick 2 year old photo shoot at Monument Valley Park we headed over to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  The first thing we did was go straight to the Giraffe exhibit so we could feed them.  There were a few other people there as well feeding the giraffes.  This sweet lady lifted Madeline up and gave her some of their lettuce so she could feed the giraffe.  Madeline was all on board until the giraffe came too close to her.  She wasn't having it after that.  Still, I bought some lettuce just in case.  I ended up feeding the giraffes but Madeline loved looking at them as long as they didn't get too close.  

After the giraffes we walked past the zebras and lions.  The lion was sleeping in the lion house so we didn't spend too long there and instead headed to the Elephant area.  She LOVED seeing the elephants.  The elephants are probably one of Madeline's favorite animals.  She loved watching them get the hay from the barrels and put it in their mouth with their trunks.  After that we saw the alligators, snakes, and kangaroos and eventually we made it to the see the tiger and bear.  She LOVED both of those big animals.  They were both very active which made it fun to watch them.  As we were making our way back to the entrance of the zoo we passed by a turkey and heard it gobble gobble.  For some crazy reason Madeline just loved that turkey and wanted to go back up the hill to see it.  It was so funny that of all the animals, she seemed to be the most excited by the turkey.  Go figure.