A visit to Brookfield Zoo

My parents and I took Abbie to Brookfield Zoo last Friday.  Apparently, according to my parents, I’ve been there before, but I don’t remember it.  It’s a beautiful zoo.  If we lived close to it, I would for sure by a membership so I could take Abbie often.  She absolutely LOVES animals.

Waving at the tiger (that was sleeping).

She loves geese.  Ever since she got to feed them in Branson, she loves them.  And she always makes a funny noise and imitates them eating out of her hand every time she sees them.

Abbie was captivated by the sea lions.  She loved watching them under water and above water, especially since one of them was making a bunch of noise.  She liked imitating the noise he was making and she thought he must be hungry and that’s why he was “talking”.

We took Abbie to the dolphin show also.  I think she was a tad overwhelmed by it since a lot was going on and she wasn’t quite sure where to look, but she was very interested none the less, and she loved dancing to the music they were playing.

We also took her to feed the sting rays.  She didn’t really get to get close to any of them since they were swimming a ways away from the wall.  She’ll probably enjoy that more when she’s older.  I fed two of them though, so that was kinda fun, and kinda scary.

Next we took her to the children’s zoo.  I wish she’d gotten to pet more animals than she did, but she liked looking at them either way.

Abbie was in desperate need of a nap, so we decided to swing by the monkey house before we headed back to our hotel.  She gets such a serious expression on her face when she’s studying things, and she was definitely checking out the monkeys.  She also wormed her way in with the bigger kids to get a look at the display they were playing with.  She’s not intimidated by much.

Playing with her ear, yawning and wanting to lay down in her stroller are tell-tale signs that Abbie is tired.  But even though she was tired, she didn’t throw any fits and was very pleasant to be around.  I was surprised since that’s not always the case.

We checked out the rhino on our way out of the zoo,

and she ran through the elephant sprinkler a few times.

If you are ever in the Chicago area, I would highly recommend visiting the Brookfield Zoo.  Kids 3 and under are free and if you have a military ID, you also get in free!!