Our Favorite Thing

You may have noticed by now that we went to the zoo a lot last year. A LOT. There's a reason for this, it was nearby, it was excellent, and we decided that it was worth it enough to get a season pass. So far be it from me to let that go to waste. I could practically give tours there. It never got dull to me- it certainly beat being at home, and we all loved it

Anyway, one of the best times we ever had there was when we took our close friends/cousins along with us. Much fun was had by all.

We played on the carousel- the only time I allowed my kids the splurge of spending additional money there.

Pretended to be animals- and learned a bit about the zoo history while we were at it. I learned from this board that one of the parrots I had the pleasure of seeing was actually there when the zoo opened, back in the 1930s. Cool stuff.


We monkeyed around a bit.

The kids, and adults, were fascinated by these ADORABLE little monkeys. I don't know what they are but they had a lot of energy and were super-duper cute.

This gibbon family provided a lot of entertainment. The black one was swinging all over the place. It was amazing how he could just fly around, hundreds of feet above the ground. Show off.

These gorillas are amazing too. Though it didn't happen on this outing, I need to tell you about the grossest thing I ever saw. In about a 5 minute timespan 4 of the gorillas all started urinating, while one of the gorillas caught the urine in his hand and splashed it around toward the crowd (thankfully it didn't hit any of us). As if that weren't bad enough another gorilla starts pooping, catches the poo in his hand and then EATS IT. So so so so gross.

Lynette and D giving us a demonstration on how gorillas move.

The dolphins. Oh I love the dolphins. So calming, and I LOVE that its one of the only places where the adults can sit and relax along with the kids. While we were there a dolphin show started up, it was fun watching it from below.

We checked out the gift shop. It is so hard to tell him "no" when he looks so darn cute in that hat!

Please don't judge me by my daughter's appearance. Yes, I did her hair, but it was a hot day, she was running around and this is what you get. Luckily, it doesn't affect the amount of fun she had riding on the carousel. Tigers are her favorite because she IS a tigress, she informed me of that almost daily.

These two are the best of buddies. They really love each other.

These two enjoy each, but really needed a nap more than anything.

So you may have thought that our favorite thing about Chicago was the zoo and you would be close. But you would be wrong. Our favorite thing about Chicago? These guys. Love you Chandlers! Miss you tons!