Woodland Park Zoo

A few Sundays ago Charlie decided he was going to take Steve skiing up at Stevens Pass. I had a meltdown earlier in the year and confided in Charlie that his beloved passion, really just wasn't my thing, so Summer and I were left to our own devices.
It was a toss-up between the aquarium and the zoo.
I freaking love anything to do with the ocean, especially super cool bioluminescent fish but it was also a really nice day and I figured we should get outside.
While I was debating what to do aloud, Steve aggressively interrupted me.
"Wait, what are you doing today? I want to go! You guys cant do anything without me!"
To which I responded, "Daddy just decided to leave Summer and I out of the plans and you guys are having a boy day, what are we supposed to do? Sit around in our house dresses and make you guys cookies while we gab about how cool you two are?"
I think not.
So I called my Go-To Girls and we decided upon the Woodland Park Zoo.
Also, on the group messages was Janet and she had grown-up stuff to do in the yard but just so happened to have a BOGO ticket for us!
Score!
We drove to Heathers and did the car seat switcheroo to her car and drove to pick up a packet of fun from Janet.
The girls fought most of the way there, mostly Summer deciding that her car seat was supremely her area and if Hattie's feet were anywhere near it, it was a major damn problem.
We decided to let them kick it out after a while of forced diplomacy.
Everyone survived the car ride, thank goodness.
When we got there I wasn't sure how much the price would be; it doesn't say on the website under 3 free or anything, so it was a nice surprise to see that under 2's were free.
I fidgeted around while Heather did the Shout and Pay, no one asked how old the girls were and we had our coupon.
Score! 20 bucks for all four of us at the zoo!
It was a super nice day, 65 degrees and the park wasn't crazy packed, we had our strollers and snacks in abundance, at the ready for sticky little toddler hands.

We started the tour with a short stop at the penny smoosher. Luckily, I grabbed like 5 bucks in loose change and put it in the back pack, for no other reason than, what if it comes in handy?
It totally did and the girls were pretty excited about the crushed pennies with zebras on them.
We decided to hit up the farm animals.
There were goats galore and a cow with tiny little legs that looked incredibly depressed with his long eye lashes and stumpy feet.

The baby goats were almost too much for me, I fantasized about shoving one under my shirt and running out of there with it.
Then came the bug house.
Cockroaches, tarantulas, beetles of all sizes and a shapes, Summer was in bug Heaven.
Then we were hit with a shock.
A huge Orb Weaver Spider without glass in between us.
It was sitting in a giant web, chilling.
I could have touched it.
It said the Spider has no reason to go anywhere because it waits for food to come to her, so as long as they keep her fed, she doesn't move.
It was still stressful.
We moved on to see meerkats, King Julian and some friends from Madagascar, owls, wolves and some bear. We struggled to see the new Red Pandas butt and watched some cute little otters play around.
We found our way to the Hippo, which Heather really wanted to see and I guess everyone at the zoo, at the exact same time, also.
I stood back and let the girls and Heather go.

After they got their fill of the Hippo we followed the trail to reveal a giant gold hippo inlaid into the ground.
Heather looked at me and said, "Woah, color coordinated," with a grin on her face.
I looked up to see a family wearing red and white. Mom, Dad, Daughters and Son all beautifully color coordinated for their family trip to the zoo.
The Mom was barking orders for them to sit on the hippo, exactly as she wanted while the dad tried to get the son, who was about 18 months, to look at him. It was a noisy affair and the line to access the golden hippo was getting longer by the second. Finally, the defeated mother yelled something and they all got off.
Finally, it was Summer and Hatties turn.

I put them up there for a spin and took a few cute pictures, while my attention was drawn to the camera, I didn't realize the little color coordinated boy had returned with a vengeance. I was snapping happily away and trying to get the girls to smile, when I see the boy charge into the frame.
I looked up as he dove at Hattie, with a malicious sneer on his face.
The words "Oh God, whats about to happen?" skittered through my mind.
He leapt and landed with his face on her shoe, ripping at it like a shark.
Hattie was shocked and clearly not hurt, he was chewing into high quality toddler sneaker and not dainty little girl toes.
The dad came running over and pulled him up by his legs and was able to get her foot out of his mouth.
"Ok, lets keep moving!" came Heathers voice, still calm in the face of the shoe biter.
I looked at her and before I could say anything she looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and muttered, "At least my kids not the weirdest on the block."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why she's my bestie.
We moved on from that weirdness and came across, quite possibly my favorite animal, the giraffes.

The Woodland Park Zoo is a great place because the animals have a lot of room to roam around, they do a great job with all the exhibits and the animals, generally, look well cared for.
My only complaint is that whenever Im here the Giraffe are in a tiny gated enclosure. I'm not sure if Im just coming at a time of day when its their allotted time in the pen, but it just doesn't seem like enough space, at all, for 3 giant animals.
They were super cute though and made me happy to see them all running around after each other.
We went into a duck area and saw some flamingoes, which were agitated about the airplane noise.
They were knocking their heads around, clicking their beaks and squawking all at the same time, to the exact same beat.

We broke into the sandwiches and snacks next to the gorilla enclosure, we put the girls up next to the glass and as I was bending over to put the snacks back into their appropriate receptacle, I felt a little smack on my butt.
I stood up and expected to see Heather laughing over me, instead I got a brazen smile from a 5 year old boy passing me.
What in the hell is going on today?

We went and grabbed some popcorn and pretzel from a booming snack place in the center of the zoo. The line was long, it was the end of the day and it clearly had been incredibly busy and horrible for the girl working the counter.
"11.46?"
I handed over the cash.
"Wait, what? How much was the popcorn?"
"Ugh! It was 7.50 with tax."
She looked to her shoulder and started berating an acne faced kid who looked like he wanted to pack it in and quit.
"You keep forgetting my orders! I need a pretzel!"
I decided to walk away and take a seat and politely wait for my pretzel.
We had about an hour left and plenty of things to see.
We really wanted to see the penguins, especially since Hattie had one on her shirt, and make a run for it.
We forced the girls into their strollers and made a dash for the penguin enclosure, when we finally got there the penguins were floating around being adorable.

We watched them float around for a bit and decided to end our zoo trip.
4 hours at the zoo will take it out of you.
We piled back into the car and the girls bickered a bit more in their seats, but they were so tired the fight wasn't really there.
Its really just a habit at this point.
Besides the butt slapping and Golden Hippo Biting Incident I think all the parties would agree, it was a lovely day for the zoo.

Cheers.