It was a beautiful day, and spring break in Calgary (which we didn't account for) so the zoo was...wait for it...a zoo. Hardy Har. And full of HUGE puddles, which Lucy and Max loved jumping in and splashing...Tyler and I did not like standing close to them when they chose to do that though.
There have been a few renovations to the zoo since the last time we were there. A new playground and a carousel. Our general rule at the zoo is that we're there to see the animals, not to play at the park. We don't spent nearly $75 to play at the park. But the carousel was new and there were giant "Come in! We're open!" signs everywhere, so we thought, "Why not?" I'll tell you why not. Amid all the signs that welcomed patrons and little kids giggling and laughing at the joy they were having to be riding on various types of zoo animals, there were no signs that said how much it cost. Or that it cost anything at all. Just inside the door was a change machine, but we ignored that. We don't need change. We loaded our kids onto the animals of their choice, and THEN the lady running the ride asked the question, "Do you have tokens?" "Tokens" We don't have tokens?" Ah ha! She pointed us to the change machine, where we finally noticed the sign that said, "Tokens = $3 each" Nice. My kids are already loaded and ready to go and now we find out that it's going to cost $9 to go on this ride...and we have no cash. So we go for the ride and when it's done, Tyler heads to the ATM machine to get some cash. Of course, the ATM machine charges him $1.50 for the transaction - and after he's done that, he finds out that the change machine isn't working, and he has to go to the till to pay for his token. They have debit there, that doesn't charge you $1.50 - but we've already done that...haven't we? So a carousel ride ends up costing us $10.50. Pretty sure we won't be doing that again any time soon. Lucy chose a camel, which she realized once the ride was going, didn't move at all.
Max rode a giant elephant, which made him nervous once it started moving. 
And Logan rode on the back of a gorilla, which he tried to climb off of many times, so Tyler had to force him to stay on the ride. 
Oh well. It was fun. Right? Lucy was doubley disappointed when she found out we wouldn't be buying icecream (which we never do) because we already spent $10 on a carousel ride. The rest of the zoo trip WAS fun. We loved watching the elephants play with a ball. The Elephants have always been Max's favorite, and they didn't disappoint. Logan was pointing away at these amazing animals. We saw hippos, and the new baby giraffe. Logan loved the meerkats and porcupines and the lions. The lion was truly amazing. He was pacing by the glass the whole time. Must've been close to feeding time. I've never been that close to a lion before. Then he would stand on his rock and roar. There were a lot of kids, so we couldn't hear it very well. I was trying to explain to Max what it sounded like by doing a quiet roar in his ear and right at that moment, Lucy had impeccable timing and came up behind him to show off her roar. He screamed and then burst into tears. Poor Max. I reassured him that there are no animals loose in the zoo.
We finished off with the gorillas, which were no shows, and the creatures of the night are closed now...which disappointed Max...and fortunately getting to that display was only through a puddle about 3 inches deep.
A trip to the zoo is never complete without a trip to Grandma's house as well. We stopped for Logan to have a nap and for the kids to have a visit with their grandma. Grandma and Bumpa have been away for a few weeks in Oregon, so it was good to see them. Grandma brought home clothes for each of the kids, and they look so cute! Grandma also set up a tea party with Lucy and Max. They made lemonade and used her tiny tea-cups. I had a picture of Max showing off how to properly hold a tea-cup, pinky finger up and everything, but I deleted it! Argh!
So it was an awesome spring day. One we will remember. Even if a picture got deleted.
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