This was the best zoo we've ever been to - Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. It was Monday, August 12, 2019.
The scenery was amazing too.
First up were the giraffes.
A BABY!!!
We spent the money to buy lettuce to feed them.
Meerkats! "Dig a tunnel, dig, dig a tunnel!"
Elephants!
We felt so lucky that day. We actually saw an elephant submerging and washing itself!
Lunch time.
There were some elephant games like this one. The littles also painted.
Our lunch area overlooked the lion enclosure.
Parakeets.
Alligators.
Again luck struck and we saw the bears swimming in the water.
In fact, the bear in the water was sitting on the drain which caused all this water to come out of their tank. The peacock was just walking around outside the bear enclosure.
Bald eagles I think?
Sloth?
Monkeys.
Indoor giraffes.
More lions. They're our favorite.
All done.
The following day we left but stopped at Krispy Kreme first.
They gave us free donuts right off the line! We also bought some. The kids still remember this fondly a year and a half later.
I had a video all prepped but it's not working anymore. Bummer.
We were able to get a special rate as a homeschool group. What a blessing since we do everything we can to keep cost down.
One of the first exhibits were the otters.
So fun!
Getting to some of the bigger tanks.
Fishy fishy fish.
Daddy considers an eel.
Samuel looks dwarfed in front of this tank.
Some kind of stingray.
Tunnels like this are so cool. It reminded me of our 2011 and 2014 trips to the Omaha Zoo.
2014 tunnel 😍
2011😲. Mind blown.
They're all so big now! 😱👍👎
Evie with some purple starfish.
This was our very favorite part of the Aquarium, even compared to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo that we did a few days later and was awesome. We loved those Bengal tigers!
Big kitty!
Yes Noah really was that excited. So was I. He gets the love of cats from me. Samuel on the other hand looks completely bored. Ha!
This photo was taken opposite of where the boys are above, in a high lookout.
The girls in that lookout.
I want a big kitty.
We were tired and taking a break next to a big tank.
Turtles!
Lotza sharks.
I love this photo of Samuel looking at the jellyfish.
More jellyfish. They're so calming.
They wheeled a cart of "mermaids" past us and Evie just had to have her picture taken with them. She's written books about mermaids for heaven's sakes!
Behind the mermaids was a stingray touching station. They were so soft!
We let all the kids get a squished coin as a souvenir.
Look at those gorgeous blue eyes.
We waited in line for twenty minutes, getting sprinkled on, with feet already very tired for this lame dolphin movie.
The Aquarium was emptying out so we decided to go through again. Back at the otters.
The eel wasn't happy to see us again.
Resting her feet.
At the tank where we had taken a break before, there were three divers!
They were interacting with us. I was the first one to do a fist bump and explosion with them and then all the kids caught on and did it too. Super cool.
Finally we went to the gift shop, much to my dread (consumerism much?). Terry had pity on the kids and let them get another souvenir ("Such a soft touch!"). Actually I think only Samuel and Ezra got something here. They just had to have these Ty Bengal tigers. To this day six months later, they still love them so much, though the stripes have worn off and their eyes are getting all marked up just like I warned they would.
From there we went to a Chick-Fil-A near a mall with a Lego store.
LEGOS!
Ezra cracked me up with all those blue afros. He spent the entire time searching for them all and had double what's pictured by the time we left.
Evie with a "Squish" too...her nickname.
Rainbow outside afterwards. Even in Denver it was always wet, just like home that summer. From there we drove back to Joy's cousin, Joni's, and got ready for Water World the next day. We only took two pictures while there so I'll just include them at the end real quick.
But first a video of the Aquarium!
We got a special deal on the Water World tickets as well thanks to Joni's hookup there.
I only took two photos on the way in and then my phone was locked away. We had a great time, but not as spectacular as I'd hoped. Still fun and glad we went!
Afterwards we drove south to Colorado Springs where we'd be spending the night in an airbnb. Ezra immediately fell asleep.
After moving away from home in 2007, I became weary of emailing recent photos of our kids to the grandparents. So I started a blog. And even though we moved back home in 2012, I still really enjoy keeping track of our lives!
