Pumpkin Smash

Today was sooooo beautiful that we decided to take the kids to the zoo. However, our plans were nearly destroyed when Lyla decided to take a 1.5 hour nap starting at 8:30 this morning. We were almost ready to just take Steven on a walk around the neighborhood when she started stirring so we quickly changed plans back to the zoo.

We hopped in the car and headed out. When we got there we saw a sign that said the close in parking was full so we went to the back lot. We got the kids loaded into the double stroller and headed to the entrance. The line was really long - at least 15 people deep for all of the ticket windows. We are so happy to be Friends of the Zoo because we sailed past the line and went right on in. I am happy that there was such a good turn out at the zoo. In the two years we've been Friends of the Zoo we've never seen a line like that. It was great to see that the zoo is becoming more popular.

Since we are Friends of the Zoo we never feel like we are on a forced march to see every exhibit so each time we pick a few select exhibits and visit them for a little longer. Today we went to the tropics to see the baby Blue Monkey. She was born on November 4. We barely got to see the baby because she was hanging on to her mommy's belly but we got a few glimpses of her - so tiny! We also got to see the Capybarra moving around right by the glass. Steven had a stare down with him!

I have never been to the Gorilla exhibit in the 10+ times I've been to the zoo so we headed straight out to see them rather than circle through all of Africa. If you've ever been to the Kansas City Zoo you'll know why we headed straight there - Africa is huge and can take hours to traverse.

Today was the pumpkin smash at the zoo. The keepers put pumpkins in the animal enclosures and you can watch them eat/play/smash them. This is probably one of the reasons that so many people came to the zoo or perhaps, the great weather.

We got to the gorilla exhibit about 20 minutes before they put the pumpkins out. The Gorilla was on the other side and so we got out Steven's lunch and just hung out. A few minutes later the Gorilla meandered right up to the window of the viewing shelter. Wow! It was really neat to see him up so close. They are so human-like. After awhile the keepers must have called him because he wander back to his house and the keepers came out with the pumpkins and apples and carrots. After they put everything out and were safely out of the enclosure they let two gorillas back out. It was so amazing watching them "run" out of their house. I say "run" because they use their feet and knuckles to move. They started to eat the apples and carrots as Steven was getting antsy. We decided to go and just as we left the viewing area the crowd cheered. I guess we missed the pumpkin smash!