It’s been an exhausting day. But a great day too. Today we went to the Brookfield Zoo. And we discovered this is not a zoo you can explore in just one day. We spent 6 1/2 hours at the zoo and we didn’t even see everything.

We started the day with a spin around the carousel and then some time in the butterfly tent. Then we took a little trolley ride around the zoo. We learned a bunch of interesting facts about animals. Like the zebra’s stripes look black, but they are really a very dark, dark brown. And swans are the most faithful animals every. They mate for life. Even if their partner dies before them, they remain a widow until they die.

On this trolley ride we saw the giraffes [my favorite all time animal], zebras, goats, bison and a ton of other animals. I didn’t take any pictures. Instead I was soaking in the info the tour guide was giving us. This was a big mistake, because when we came back later in the day so I get photos up close and personal all of the animals were inside resting. So if you go to the zoo make sure you snap those shots early in the morning while the animals are wide eyed and bushy tailed.

At least the camels were still out when we made our way by. I snapped this shot of the kids in front of the camel exhibit.

After lunch we watched the dolphin show. Man those dolphins can jump high.

After the show we headed off to see the lions and tigers and bears, oh my. [Doesn't it get old when people say that every time they go to the zoo? Yeah, too bad 'cause I just keep using that every time I go. ;)] We even stopped off to enjoy the elephants. The elephants are my second favorite animal.

We also spent quite a bit of time at the children’s zoo. There the kids got to pet the goats. They also got to use big brushed to brush the goats. The kids loved it. I thought I’d never get them out of there. Which reminds me. If that’s all it takes to entertain the kids, I’m going to pick up some brushes so they can brush the cats all day. Instant entertainment.

Even though we spent the whole day in the sun [although it was a beautiful day out today and the temps were only in the 70s...great day for the zoo] and we were on our feet for more than six hours, the kids were great. I was amazed at how well behaved my kids were. At least a handful of times I had to stop and make sure these really were my kids that were trailing behind me and not some alien species. They rock!

But after the zoo, we went out to dinner. On the way to the restaurant all of the kids except Keaton fell asleep in the car. And [as we know from yesterday's car trip] Caleb is not at all pleased when he gets woken up from his slumber. He refused to tell the waitress what he wanted to drink. Instead he yelled, “You’re giving me a headache.” Yes, to the waitress. A complete stranger. I would have been completely mortified if I wasn’t already totally used to this behavior. Five kids later not much mortifies me anymore.

We ended the day with a dip in the pool. Yes, the indoor pool at my mom’s apartment. The Disneyland of all pools.

I think we have sufficiently worn them out. It didn’t take too much prodding to get them snuggled on the floor and off to dreamland tonight.

And I know it won’t take much for me to start enjoying the backside of my eyelids. I’m getting too old for all this activity. Whatever happened to just resting on vacation?

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 11:27 pm and is filed under A day in our life. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.