Niabi Zoo

Oh the adventures continue while daddy is still off in foreign lands!  My friend and I decided to load up our four kids (all four years old and younger) for a day trip to the Niabi Zoo.  We scoped the website before and although our admission was free with our reciprocal zoo membership there were lots of extras you could do.  This zoo offers a train ride, pony rides, giraffe feedings, a carousel, a pond to feed the fish and a children's zoo where you can feed the animals.  Elizabeth wants to feed and ride any animal that she can so I knew we needed to be on the same page so we didn't run into any conflicts!  We decided there was no way our kids would see the train and not want to ride it, so the train was a must and as it ended it up, was the first thing we did.  It was a nice train ride, but unlike the engineer at Scovil, this man was not so jolly and threatened to stop the train if anyone stood up.  I guess he couldn't "turn the train around" so he just had to threaten to stop it!

Waiting for the train

On the train - choo choo!!

After the train ride we just began meandering around the zoo.  It is pretty much laid out in a loop.  The next stop was the fish pond.  They had ducks, swans and huge koi fish.  Once we knew the little boys weren't going to fall in, Jessica dug out quarters and they fed the fish.  

Love the plaids!

Handing out the fish food

The children's zoo was next and it appeared to have been recently updated.  They had sheep and two little black lambs which of course Elizabeth loved.  The food was light and oat like, not pellets.  Grant pretty much threw it at them, but he has to do everything his big sister does!  Somehow we managed to walk by the right by the ponies, so I guess we will save the pony rides for the State Fair and the rodeo!  

Goats always want to eat!

Our timing was good for the giraffe feedings, as they only do it at 11:00 am.  They have four giraffes, although only one of them was interested in the food.  I told Jessica later that I am putting the giraffe feeding in the column of "once in a lifetime," because $4.00 for two leaves of romaine lettuce is ridiculous!  However, Elizabeth loved it and I am sure the remaining $3.75 goes towards wonderful zoo efforts :)

I wish these pictures weren't so dark, but her smile is priceless!

It is hard to capture these precious moments on multiple media devices, thus my video camera is in the picture!

We took a picnic lunch and there was a great place in the middle of the zoo where we could grab a table.  We were competing with a lot of school field trips. Jessica and I had decided that if the kids were good they could ride the carousel at the end and if they weren't good they had to watch their friends ride it.  Elizabeth had melt down about not wanting to share the zoo map.  Is there really anything more special than your three and half year only yelling "but it's mmmminnnnneeeeeee!" in the middle of the zoo?   Since she worked through the map issue quickly (she was throwing this fit near the train tracks and I told her she was in danger of the train running her over) and she had been good the rest of time, I still let her ride the carousel.  Grant and Brady seemed content in their strollers, so we just left them be and around and around I went with Gavin and Elizabeth.  

I am not certain we saw every animal, but we hit the major ones and the kids were starting to tucker out so we headed for home.  After about ten minutes in the car Grant fell asleep and probably would have sleep longer if it hadn't been for loud whining coming from a certain girl in the backseat.  Actually, Jessica and I wanted privacy glass for the ride home.  The kids had trouble coming to agreement on what movie or which music to entertain them and it got to the point where we turned it all off.  We had all done so well all day that our luck had just run out!  That's ok, we made it home without having to pull over and we have fond memories of a special day with our friends! I would definitely recommend this as a day trip.

I just love this picture of Grant waving at this silly bird - he was getting such a kick out of it!