Hogle Zoo - Field Trip with Taylor

So, this blog is LONG overdue, along with several others that are to come. This is from early May! One of my favorite things about being a stay at home mom (even though I work a lot from home), is the opportunity I have to take the day and go on field trips with my kids. I LOVE THEM!! It has become tradition to take a picture of me and the field trip kid on the bus. Others offer to take it for me, but no, this is tradition! One looking normal ... And at least one looking crazy! Taylor didn't really want to do many crazy faces, so it was just one this time. And yes, Taylor's face is puffy and blotchy ... she had another case of her WONDERFUL hives again. They were bad enough that she was miserable walking, but we weren't going to miss the zoo! Had it been a normal day, I would have kept her puffy little self home where I could give her more Benadryl and Zyrtec to help make her more comfortable. Sure wish we knew what causes those darn hives for her!

So, off we went to the zoo. We had a group of 3 girls, including Taylor, but we chose to hang out with my friend Michelle and her group of 3 more girls, including her daughter Makenna (Michelle and Makenna live back to back with us). It was Taylor, Makenna, Ella, Joanna, Addison and Megan. Fun little group of 6. :) We started with the apes and gorillas.

We saw camels, peacocks, monkeys of all kinds, and then it was the rhinoceros and elephants. It was a little bit colder than we expected and Taylor and I were both wishing we had sweatshirts or jackets. Oops - poor planning on my part.

Then came my favorite - the cougar. It was actually awake and prowling around some. This picture shows it sitting on the ledge above the girls' heads. Go cougars!! :)

About the time we arrived, the girls started asking for lunch. We finally gave in and had our picnic ... not sure what Michelle is doing here, but hey, we had lots of fun!!

Aren't they cute?

Me and Taylor! (the puffiness is really obvious here - especially around her eyes).

Now its Taylor's turn to take pictures!! .... Of what, you are asking... No worries, I'm not sure of what either. The fence and some tables?

The ground...

Her sparkly shoe! (notice the redness in her foot - again, the hives)

Taylor took quite a few other pictures on her own, one of my name tag stuck on the front of my shirt and one of the BodyBugg on my arm - both of which captured less desirable closeups of me. A few more fuzzy ones and then a great one of the Zebras bum! Go Taylor! She did manage to take a few better ones with my help though. She LOVES to take pictures! You'll see more of her pictures when I blog about hiking to Timp caves (although most of them had help). Here is another group shot - this one by the zebras.

Penguins!! Waddle, waddle waddle.

And here it is ... FINALLY says Taylor ... the Giraffes!! Taylor LOVES giraffes right now, which is funny, because that was Alyssa's favorite animal at about this age. Totally a coincidence, I think. Taylor did her class animal report about giraffes. She could choose any animal she wanted, but on the paper explaining the project there was a picture of a giraffe and a few other animals. She chose the giraffe and could not be swayed. She learned that giraffes can be up to 19 feet tall and have legs that are as long as her daddy is tall (6 feet)! They eat leaves and flower buds using the tongue which is longer than her arm! They sleep standing up. It is very hard for them to stand up and if they slept on the ground they would be easy targets for predators. She also learned baby giraffes can run the same day they are born! I learned that mommy giraffes give birth standing up... the baby drops up to 5 or 6 feet to the ground ... THUNK .

This next one is Taylor and Makenna - upstairs in the giraffe house. With a giraffe peaking from behind them! Taylor loves to play with Makenna. She is definitely one of Taylor's best friends. I'm very grateful they get along so well. Jessica ADORES her too and the three of them actually have learned to play really well together.

Have you ever seen giraffes run? I hadn't before this trip. I tried to get video, but didn't get a great one and I can't get it to upload anyway. But this pic kind of shows it. I thought it was pretty cool to watch them run around their yard. A giraffe can run up to 35 mph for short distances and cruise comfortably at 10mph for longer distances. They actually looked more graceful than I expected.

We bumped into their teacher Mrs. Scoville near the reptile house so we took a couple pics with her. What a great teacher! The kids LOVE her!

And then we found "the boss of the school" (that's who the kids told us he was) Mr. Becker, the principal. He had ridden his motorcycle up to be there in case of any problems (I think it was last year, a group didn't come back to the bus on time so they had to leave them in order for the kids to be home on time and the bus to drive its normal route - the parents had to come pick up their kids at the zoo). Notice where Taylor is standing. She very quietly waited until everyone else got in the picture and then slid in at the end of the row - as far from Mr Becker as she could get. Taylor is often very shy around people and Mr Becker is no exception. Back to the elephants a little more before heading back to the bus! One of the elephants is expecting ... due in late July or early August. We're looking forward to going back up there to see the baby elephant!

Michelle with all the girls by the elephants. Fun day!! I'm so glad I get to do things like this with my kids. I don't always slow down enough at home to do the things I should/could do with them. But I do love hanging out with them and doing fun things! I'm always grateful for days like this that force me to stop and just be mom. It is so fun to be with them and it reminds me how lucky I am to have great kids that want me around! I love my girls!