Kindergarten Zoo trip

Katie's Kindergarten class went to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. Ryan was able to take it off work, so we made it a family day. Katie rode up on the bus with her class. The rest of us drove up separately, and kinda got lost. Thankfully, her teacher had given us her phone number; we let her know we would be a little late, so Katie stayed with her until we got there. But after that, we could wander around and do whatever we wanted.

We brought the stroller, which was a life saver. By the time we were ready to go home, all three girls wanted to ride in it, and because Katie was the biggest,  she couldn't, and so proceeded to have a melt down.
I wanted to make sure the girls kept their hats on. After we had been there about 30 mins, I noticed Elayna had taken hers off AGAIN, and wasn't wearing it. When we looked for it, Ryan remembered seeing Annalisa playing with it. Yep, she had thrown it out somewhere along the way. Oh well. 

Anna seemed pretty happy with her hat.

Well, maybe not so happy.  I gave Katie my hat, and Elayna wore Katie's, and Anna obviously was tired of hers:

"Here you go. I'm done with this"

Around lunchtime, we met up with my sister's family. We kinda stayed with them for a while. This is a huge wooden elephant that makes noises and squirts water out of it's trunk.

We attended a bird show.  It was funny and entertaining.  The girls really had fun with it. The birds swoop right over your heads. There were also birds that were obviously preening and doing funny things for the audience. The narrative was amusing also.

There is a Carousel with lots of seating around it. We ate first, then Jay (Amanda's husband) and Ryan took the kids on the Carousel. They are so nice.

We stayed at the giraffe exhibit for a while. It was shaded, and had places to sit, and restrooms. What's not to like? Besides the smell, of course. :)

We rode around on the little train they have there, and then ended up at the playground.  The kids had lots of fun playing on the spider web (rope course to climb on), eggs you can climb into and hide in, (in fact, I couldn't find my girls for a couple heart stopping moments, until I looked in an egg), turtles and crocodiles you can climb on, and a snake slide, among other fun playthings. There was also a "night creatures" exhibit by the playground. It was dark and shady in there, plus they had these little areas where the kids could "pop up" and see the people outside.
 
Here is Katie.  Elayna wasn't quite tall enough yet.

We had a really fun time. We were all exhausted by the time we left. I think the girls fell alseep in the car, and Ryan and I took naps when we got home. Who knew the zoo would be so tiring? I'm really grateful that we could go, and that Ryan could take work off to come with us. I can't imagine that I would have been able to do it without his help. He's so great.