We will try the Zoo again in a few months

Today admission was free to the Milwaukee Zoo so we thought that we'd brave the crowds and the cold weather for the morning with Rich's mom and sister who are visiting from Texas. The kids are are really into seeing doggies and Addy was really excited one day when on Animal Planet she saw Meerkat Manor so I had high hopes they would recognize in some way these different animals.

We walked in and headed straight to the elephants. I have a burning desire to slap on lotion on these guys but know that is just crazy talk. Rich and I rode an elephant up a mountain in Thailand have been in awe of their intelligence and sense of humor ever since.

Eloise thought they were okay as seen from the wagon.

But they were much less scary in the arms of Aunt Laura.

It was a little chilly outside but there are plenty of indoor exhibits like the Big Cat House. The tiger scene totally cracked me up. Does this look like it should be be a scene painted on black velvet?

-Seriously didn't know that and I know way too much about pugs.

Penguins are pretty much my favorite animals. When we lived in Texas I once told someone that growing up in Wisconsin I had pet penguins and I would walk down the street with leashes during the winter. Not true by the way. I got that from one of my favorite children's books- Mr. Popper's Penguins. Hilarious, highly recommend it.
This was a pretty happy little one playing outside but the penguin display inside freaked me out a little bit. I think I would rather see my favorite animal in the natural environment. Might have to skip that one next time.
As the morning went on the indoor exhibits got a little more crowded, it was hard to see the animals from the wagon and harder to maneuver the wagon. We walked into the reptile house and turned right around because it was so dark and crowded there was no way we were going to see anything anyway. I'm kind of glad; I've always been a little scared of the reptile house. It's so dark in there, how can you tell if one of those things escaped?
We had a make a quick exit at the monkey house as well because of a coughing lady that kept following us. We are not officially on RSV restriction this year as of yet but Rich and I are still pretty skittish.
"Run Daddy run- someone is coughing in the Monkey House." -Newman Triplets


So not too many pictures of the kids with the animals. Mainly because they were either not interested or scared to death. Eloise had to be held a majority of the time and not look at the animals. Beckett wanted to stay in the safety of the protective wagon and was white-knuckled gripping the sides. And Addy was okay as long as she wasn't too close, or they were too big or moved too much. For example, the cheetah was okay from a distance but when it paced past the window she grabbed on to the closest human and tried to climb.
Luckily, Aunt Laura was there to save her every time.


I think I took this same petrified picture of Beckett about 30 times. These "doggies" were a little too big for him.

I have a thing for taking pictures of signs. This was one of my favorites because I came up with a really lame joke.-What's the difference between a macaque and a set of 17 month old triplets? NOTHING!

As we were leaving we watched the carousel. I forget how beautiful and magical these can be. I think they would have enjoyed riding it if they were not sick of eating animal crackers and hungry for lunch. The irony didn't even hit me until we were leaving.