We actually made it out to the
Wildlife Zoo in Phx, different than the Phx zoo. I had saved up 2 buy 1 get 1 free admission coupons just for the occasion, other wise we wouldn't have gone. Prices were really high so they were awesome. We actually got away with only buying Dar's admission and the rest of us got in for free! How did this happen you may ask? Well, we took Dar's 2 sisters with us and we used 1 coupon for mine and Dar's admission. WE used the other coupon for the tickets for his 2 sisters. One of them paid for herself, and the other used her money to buy the kids tickets (kids were half the price of adults). It worked out way better than I had expected! If you havn't been to the wildlife zoo before, you should go if you get the chance. It was not really crowded like the Phx zoo is, and it all just blends together so you don't miss a section of animals! It was also so big that having lunch and walking around took us about 5 hours! They also have a baby nursery where you can see the baby animals, a petting zoo with deer, llamas, goats, chickens, etc., a giraffe feeding station, TONS of birds and monkeys, a station where you can touch sting rays, starfish, sea urchins, crabs, and a bunch of other stuff! I was so amazed at all the different types of animals they had. We took a lot of pictures of the animals, but sadly didn't' think to take pictures of the kids exploring. I was going to do that towards the end but my camera died after we ate lunch! So sad...
Because there are so many animal pictures, I'll just tell you about the kids' favorite ones and the main attractions.
Aimslee's favorite was the penguins. She was so excited to see them and the were towards the middle of the day.
She kept asking us when the penguins were coming up so when we saw the big group of kids yelling, we knew we were there! This little guy kept showing off his stuff for everyone. He loved to pose for the cameras! I wanted to get one swimming but none of them would take the plunge. The were cute though!!! She also informed me that every animal that was sleeping, looked like they were dead, especially the sloth!! He was cute all cuddled up!
Rusty's favorite was actually the little frogs, but we weren't able to get those so instead he picked the seahorses. Honestly, he didn't pay too much attention to them but when he looked through the pictures, that what he said he liked best. He also liked the shark tank. We actually ate lunch right next to the sharks but I will tell you more about that in a bit.
Ashlyn's favorite was of course the monkeys. If she was ANY animal it would be a monkey. She went crazy the first time we saw the monkeys, and still went crazy 4 hours later with more monkeys. She also really enjoyed looking at all the colorful birds. She tried to like the goats when they were feeding them but kind of got intimidated with them bigger than her.
My couple of favorites were feeding the giraffes and also the monkeys. More specifically, the monkeys at the end. Even MORE specific, the capuchin monkeys, like the one in Night of the Museum. He was so smart and funny! I wish I was able to take of video of the little guy! There was a piece of popcorn outside of his cage that he just HAD to have so he grabs
a stick, pushes it through the cage, and tries to scoop it closer to his cage! When that stick didn't work, he found another one and did the same thing! It was so funny watching that little monkey! While he was busy at "work" the other monkey was showing off. He was swing around in circles in his cage showing us all of his tricks! They also had these sting rays that were polka dotted. I thought they looked really cool and picture worthy.
Dar didn't really have a favorite so I'll just say lunch was his favorite, since he is a guy, and it had food! Plus, this is a good time to tell you about our lunch. I don't remember what the restaurant was called but it was busy and good! They had a huge shark tank in the room that we were excited to eat with. Turns out we got the best seat of the house and out table was right next to the tank! It was amazing! The service was good, the food was pretty good, (not the best BBQ I've had), and the kids loved it. Rusty absolutely loved the sharks, as I've mentioned before, but he liked them so much we couldn't get him to sit in his chair to eat! He just wanted to watch the sharks swim around. He was even laying on the floor by them so he could pretend to sleep with the sharks!
My fearless boy! Aimslee on the other hand, was scared of them for a while. When she would
get brave enough to put her hands on the glass, the big one would swim by and she would freak out and get away! Ash was just scared of any fish bigger than her, I don't blame her though! I managed to get a couple of pictures of them all being brave at the end, so cute!
The petting zoo had a place to get food for the animals to feed them so I got some for the kids. Aimslee liked them all except the llama, because it was taller than her. Dar just kept petting the deer telling them that when they got much bigger he was going to hunt them and eat them for dinner! Just kidding, he didn't' say that, but he was thinking that! He did however tell me how cool the fox would look on his wall. I just smiled and gave him a look that meant 'it will never happen dear!'
Here is a picture of the sting ray exibit. Aimslee refused to put her hand in the water, Rusty enjoyed it, and Ash just liked the water. I didn't touch it because I was too busy with the camera and was content just watching. They described it as slimy and weird feeling. I think this is Rusty's hand.
The giraffes had a stand up high that you could walk up the stairs and feed them. I thought the kids would enjoy this so I got a lot of food for them. Rusty tried to feed them but when he saw how long their tongue was, chickened out and didn't want to look at them anymore. Aimslee enjoyed feeding them but got tired of it when it got some slobber on her. Ash had fun throwing the food at it, poor giraffes. There was even a baby giraffe but it was on the other side and the kids' arm, as well as mine, were not long enough to reach it.
All in all it was the perfect day to go. Dar didn't have school, I didn't have to work, and either did his sisters. It was a little bit on the cool side but nothing a jacket couldn't fix! Later on in the day it did get too warm for a jacket! My kids really enjoyed it and I enjoyed having a family outing. Maybe when the perfect day comes around again we will go but only if I can find more of those coupons!!! I now leave you with this last picture just because I can't look at it and not think of "Scurry, sniff, FLINCH!" Can anyone name the movie?
For Dar's birthday I decided to get a little creative and I was really tired of eating cake! So I decided to try and make an ice cream cake! I'm not one that likes to follow recipes word from word, sometimes I like to try my own thing or skip some steps! Note to self.... don't try that again on your first try! I decided to make a mint chip cake with twix and caramel. It was really good, but I found out that caramel doesn't freeze! At least not the kind that is for sunday's! It turned out pretty good, except for the caramel melting and oozing all over the counter! Over all though, I was pretty proud of myself! I will defidently be making it again, except I will be using melted chocolate in the middle so it can harden and freeze!
For Easter this year we had a lot of fun! We tried decorating Easter eggs with a new little kit that was supposed to be mess free.... haha, guess again!! It spilled all over and the lids came off and we couldn't get the eggs out like we thought! We ended up trying a different method that I actually enjoyed so much we will do it again next year!
