Lions, Tigers, and Bear,,,,Oh My!! 4/8/10

We decided to get away for a few days during spring break week. We headed over to Toledo. The first day we were there we went to the zoo. It was a cool day so there weren't very many people to fight with to see the animals. We made good use of all the indoor exhibits to warm up periodically.
The first exhibit see saw were the seals. Since it has been a year since we went to a zoo, Samantha got REALLY excited when the seal swam by her. :)If there is a carousel to be ridden, my kids will find it. ;) The kids (and Daddy) had the whole carousel to themselves so I think they got an extra long ride.
Of course, if there was a statue, I had my kiddos pose for a picture by it. ;)
Our favorite exhibit in zoos are the polar bears. So of course we have to pose for a picture by the polar bears fountain. :)
There were some very friendly ducks swimming in the polar bear fountain. Samantha was having quite the conversation with one of them. ;) "cack, cack, cack"
"Bye duckie!"
After spending time outside, we decided it was time to warm up, so off to the aviary for awhile. While we were there some new, rare species of birds were hatched! ;)


After some more walking around we came upon the gorillas. Again.....I made the kids pose for a picture. ;)


This gorilla sat by the window for a long time. We noticed that the gorilla was eating a whole onion.....whew!
We sat and watched this monkey family for close to 1/2 an hour! The kids loved watching the 2 younger monkeys playing. We decided they must be brother & sister. They played and then fought and played some more. ;)
Marc had to see if his arms stretched as far as an orangutan's arms do.
In the entry way of a children's area, there were a bunch of masks hanging for the kids to try on. The elephant swallowed Samantha. ;)
Marc transformed into a tiger.
And he got stung by a massive bee. ;)
There was a whole indoor exhibit all about bugs. Eewww! There was a cool beehive that the kids can crawl in and pretend to be bees.
The kids got to pretend to be spiders and climb a spider web.
The kids put on bumble bee costumes.

We got to watch the elephant eat his lunch. It was pretty cool watching him us his trunk to dig trough hay and stuff to find his food.
The zoo wore Samantha out!
We had a good time. We have thought about going back again when it warms up a little bit more. :)