July 9: The Zoo!

It was a beautiful day for our whole family to visit John Ball Park Zoo.  It'd been a year since our last visit so the kids didn't remember it much and were excited to go check it out!  As of June, the zoo is home to a HUGE alligator, Big Mike, who weighs over 800 lbs. and is 13 feet long -- impressive to see! 

Koen's favorite thing at the zoo was watching the monkeys, while Ty liked the bears best.  I liked the petting zoo where the kids could pet the goats.  In the reptile house, one of the zoo volunteers had a snake out and Ty and cousin Evan were brave enough to touch it!  I know there are other opportunities at the zoo to hear talks and learn about the animals, but we kept it pretty simple with little kids in tow. 

We were at the zoo just over 2 hours and saw about everything...the perfect amount of time for an outing made up of young kids and their parents.  I'm glad we went in the morning when it was slightly cooler as it was getting pretty hot and sticky as we left.