King Cobra, Tiger and Swinging Monkeys

I took a couple days of vacation during Oliver's spring break and I'm so glad that I did.  Not only did we go skiing on a Thursday but we went to the zoo on a Friday.  This was a fantastic idea to go mid-week, until we got there and had to park at City Park and not at the Zoo.  We hi-jacked Owen to join us and I had three excited boys in the backseat.  They were so excited that they didn't care how far away we parked.  So, we parked and then hiked it out to the zoo.  Once at the zoo, the kids grabbed maps and started plotting their route.

They each got to pick their top animal to see.  Oliver picked the King Cobra (no surprise), Kellan picked the Tigers and Owen picked the swinging Monkey.

First up, Kellan's Tiger.  We almost missed Mr Tiger, but we spotted him sleeping in the corner.  Ke was kicked back and snuggled up sleeping, much like Kellan sleeps.  Such a sweet kitty.

The next stop was the King Cobra.  Oliver knows exactly where to find him in the Tropical Discovery.

Oliver and his favorite pet at the zoo.  We (he) lucked out this day as the King Cobra was actually on the move.

This lizard is livin' the good reptile life.

In Elephant Passage, Owen was taking the boys for a ride.  It looks like he had a co-pilot giving directions in his ear.

Kellan took up the backseat with a couple of other kids.  Looking at Oliver, the ride may be been getting a little bit wild and crazy.

Finally, we saw the swinging monkeys.  Really, I was SO relieved.  I thought that Owen wanted the Orangutang's, which are on the other side of the zoo.  We walked through Elephant Passage because I love it.  Fortunately, the Elephant Passage monkeys are the ones that Owen wanted.  Whew!  It all worked out.

Mission Completion!

We hit up the King Cobra, the Tiger and the Swinging Monkeys.  We were having so much fun, we didn't want it to end, so we went to ride the train.

After watching 2 trains come and go, we thought that we were next.  

Just Kidding!

The cut off was right at the boys.  So... we took a photo.

Oliver, Owen and Kellan

The biggest advantage of being the first ones in line for the train...  we get the first pick of the train cars. 

The O's picked the very first car...

....while Kellan and Mommy took up the second car on the train.

What would make a super fun day complete?  An ice cream cone, of course!

But first, Kellan had to consult the map to make sure that he wasn't missing anything critical that we had set out to see.

Don't fret, there were no tourists injured in this map reading and walking.

Finally at the ice cream, the boys actually paused for a cutie pie quick photo.

Kellan, Owen and Oliver

I SCREAM...

YOU SCREAM...

WE ALL SCREAM...

FOR ICE CREAM!!!

What a fantastic (and long) day we had at the zoo!!!

The boys were awesome and we all had a great time.  They were even troopers for the LONG walk back to the car. There wasn't a single peep of a complaint.  Kellan did slow down and he would stop to squat and rest now and then.  Eventually, I volunteered to give him a ride, even though he didn't ask for it.

King Cobra, Tiger, Swinging Monkeys...

CHECK!

Train Ride and Ice Cream...

BONUS!!!