McRae Family Spring Break Part 1/2

Last year, Josh and I bought a Minnesota Zoo Membership!  What a great purchase this has been!  This paid for itself within two visits...

We arrived at the zoo only to find our kids looking like this...

Great!  A wonderful way to begin our journey, right?  WRONG!  Josh and I sat in the car for a good 20 minutes - letting the kids catch a couple ZZZ's.

The kids really enjoyed watching the penguins.  They would swim right up to the window and follow the kid's hands around.  We learned that the black penguins were the adult penguins and the gray penguins were the baby penguins.

I like that it looks like Collin is grabbing him here!

We were watching the ducks and flamingos.  Carter and Collin kept pressing their faces against the safety rope :)  Callie was excited to see the flamingos!

The underwater section was AWESOME!  The boys really enjoyed having all the different types of fish swim right up to them.

This sea turtle was a rescue.  His fin was clipped by a speed boat, and only swims with his front flippers - he doesn't use his back at all.  I thought that was rather interesting.  He was beautiful and reminded me of the turtles from Finding Nemo :)  Way to go Disney, turning our zoo trips into memories from your movies!

Thanks to my mom for packing lunches for us!  I had gotten up with the kids super early and was taking a 30 minute cat nap before we left.  She packed PB&J sandwiches along with juice boxes and snacks for us!  Thank you - the kids devoured their food!

The wolves were out and enjoying the beautiful spring weather!

The kids were able to feel fur from an otter.  It was hard to have them use the back of their hand, but we eventually caught on!

This was great - the big white wolf was howling which caused a train reaction for all the wolves.  Pretty soon our kids were howling :)  It was very cute!

Not only do I love the Eagle, but I am so proud to hear Callie tell us about the Bald Eagle!  

She was beautiful - and sleepy :)

The lynx reminded me of Kix :)  Looks just like our cat!

The monkeys were out playing, but they were also snuggling up together to keep warm :)  I love this picture!

We had visited all the indoor animals and decided to venture outside.  It was so beautiful out...I love these two :)

Callie and Daddy had to get a better view of the bears who were waking up and getting ready to come closer to us :)

Carter had just finished eating his sucker...man he's a sweetie!

Collin and his big blue eyes get me every time!

The kids really enjoyed watching the bear move closer to us.  He would sit on a log and try and shake it!

Finally he just laid down on a log and went to sleep :)

I will admit, Josh had a great joke, and I was very jealous of that joke!  "The Talkin isn't doing much Talkin!"  Darn - why didn't I think of that :)  That's right up my alley.   

Overall, we had a wonderful day at the zoo, and I can't wait to go back and do it all over again :)  Next time, hopefully the weather will be warmer and we can spend the entire day outside :)  If you haven't purchased a MN Zoo Family Membership, I am going to recommend you do!  It's worth the money and such a wonderful place to go!