I want to love the Zoo, but...

...there's just not much to love. (At this point in time, at least.)

We went to Brookfield Zoo on Veterans Day, 2 Thursdays ago, since Rob had the day off work and it was a free admission day.

Since Ellie doesn't walk yet, we have to bring a stroller. Which means in order to go inside any of the animal houses, we have to leave the stroller outside in the stroller parking area. Unattended. Translation: I end up hauling inside on my person anything of value, in addition to carrying Ellie. And then wondering, while looking at the animals, if someone is stealing our stroller! (Am I the only one who thinks about this? It drives me nuts.)

This last time we barely made it to the Monkey exhibit, our first stop, before Robbie was a melty mess. The monkeys distracted him from his 2 year old woes for about 30 minutes, but upon exiting the building he neither wanted to walk or be carried by daddy. So we hobbled over to the elephant area, where he played with a large wooden 2D elephant with a big tube/hose for a trunk. After deciding that this was not what we came to the Zoo to see, we tried to get him excited about seeing more living animals. You'd think we tried to cut his arm off.

He was a hot mess and we decided to cut our losses and head home. (We consoled ourselves by remembering that we paid nothing to get in!) But whoever designed the Zoo was brilliant, and no child is going to let you walk right past the enormous carousel by the entrance/exit area without at least one go-around. So we gave in and rode as a family. At least I got a few cute pictures of our ride!

Last year when we took Robbie to the Zoo, he came down with the stomach flu the next day and we passed it around our family for 2 weeks. We sort of expected it after he spent much of that visit sucking on every guard rail in sight before we could pry him off. This year, Ellie had the fever that led to her seizure the day after our Zoo trip. Call it coincidence, but I think we have a terrible track record of picking up illness at the Zoo.

Taking in the sights at the Zoo... I mean, totally distracted by a leaf even though there are wild animals everywhere. (Why not? And this would be why we go on free days.)

Ah... the infamous 2D elephant with hose-trunk. Much better than actually viewing the real thing around the corner.

Attempting to end the visit with happy children!

Somebody loves her daddy...

This face!

I love it when she pulls her serious face when something is supposed to be fun and exciting.

And I love it when she points her sweet little toes. Such a lady.

The Zoo. We may or may not be back anytime soon. The end.