The Zoo!!

One Saturday morning (June 11) we woke up and decided it would be fun to go to the Zoo. So we packed our lunches and went to Utah's Hogel Zoo. We got a little lost and had to ask for directions but we still got there at a good time. The weather was perfect and didn't start to get hot until we were almost done!

Here we are waiting in the long line at the zoo. It was dinosaur week (or month) so there were a lot of people! Thankfully they had a nice waterfall to watch while we were waiting in line.


Here we are inside the zoo using the bathroom and planning our route
Brylee was super excited


Tucker found some rocks :)

and Hunter found a place to climb


Tucker had a list of animals he wanted to see and we saw everything on that list but the Zebra

Everything is really close to you at the Zoo. My only experience has been the Phoenix Zoo where everything is far away and hard to see (or so my memory tells me) so it was fun to be so close to the animals!

Here is the Rhino


The boys enjoyed climbing on this one!



We saw Giraffes. Tucker was impressed with how tall they were


I think the Tiger exhibit was the most exciting for me and Bryant. The tiger had been given a nice bone of meat to chew on and was eating it right next to the fence!


Yes, all that is between us and the tiger is a small wood fence a couple feet from the "wire" fence





We also saw a Gibbon. We have ready books that have gibbons in them but I had no idea they made this noise. This gibbon was very happy to perform. He even swung by his arms all around his cage while we were watching.


After lunch the boys went to the restroom to wash up and found this small sink to be the most entertaining thing at the zoo (to this point). Bryant had to pry them out of the bathroom and back to me and Brylee to go see more things.



Here is a lizard from the super smelly house exhibit. I waited outside with Brylee since strollers were not allowed and we did not want to risk losing our stroller.


Bryant liked how vibrant this bird was in comparison to the brown dirt surrounding it.


So it was Dinosaur day at the Zoo. They had a lot of animatronic dinosaurs around the zoo for you to see. Before we even saw any real animals we came across this Dilophosaurus. It likes to spit water at the passerbyers. Hunter had no idea and so he got up nice and close to it. He was rather freaked out when it sprayed him.


There was also this huge T-Rex that bent down and roared. It was in one of the main traffic areas and a lot of the children were scared to pass by it to go see the other animals. It was a little entertaining to watch


Tucker said that he was not scared of the T-Rex so we forced him to stand right in front of it for a picture. He kept looking up at it very concerned that it was going to roar at any minute or bend over and get him.


After getting the picture, Tucker said that there was a different dinosaur that he was not afraid of. He took us back up one of the trails and said that he wanted a picture with this dinosaur.


At the end of our journey we came to the kids' play area. The boys had lots of fun running around and playing before we headed home.

Here is Tucker inside a turtle shell



Here is Hunter at the bottom of the long snake slide. We had to convince him to come and see the other things to play on.


Here is Tucker inside a giant egg


Hunter inside the turtle shell

Hunter inside the egg



Tucker going down an elephant slide


the boys enjoying a teeter-totter


All three children were asleep shortly after we got in the car and on the way home.


Even Bryant passed out once we got home.

The zoo was so much fun!! and our children did such a good job. It is so nice to be able to take them out to do fun things and have them appreciate the time and not whine or complain while we are out!. I'm so grateful for my children and husband!