Year 2, Day 284: Field Trip Fun!

What a gorgeous day to be at the zoo!  I totally overdressed us, but that's ok.  I'm glad it warmed up quickly.  However, I'm exhausted and in a ton of pain. So I took a nap. And Abishai was snacking on the way home and didn't take his nap until after 3:30 when we got home!  Our friends were able to get us into the zoo on their "plus 4" membership, with Abishai being under the age of a paid ticket, so we only had to pay for parking, which was $7!!!  Yes, $7! Yikes! But, it was a cheap field trip, nonetheless.  The zoo hadn't changed much except that it was October, so the whole Halloween theme was going on, which they call "ZooBoo."  The festivities happen between 2-7pm, so we were able to enjoy a good part of the day without the extra stuff going on.  We saw 95% of all the animals, took in the dolphin show again, sweated in the desserts zone, and walked, walked, walked, the whole zoo grounds.  Up and down hills and yes, lots of walking on pavement.  Thank goodness we only have church to attend tomorrow.  The whole weekend is "free" although we have plenty to work on at home.  Kiddos have some schooling to finish up, yardwork could and should be done, boxes should be moved inside so I can work on clothes next week, and naps should be had.  For my part, we will just have to see what the poor body is saying in the morning.  I suspect I'll need a nice slow day and then dive in on Sunday.  We have another field trip coming up on Monday, though, so I need to rest, too.  Which means some things just never get done.  Sigh.  Oh well.

Warning: There's about 70 photos here.  I won't put captions on them all, and when I do, I'll keep most of them short.

Perfect weather.

" Niah shark, niah shark!"  Can't tell me Big One doesn't enjoy time with little one.  Having Benaiah come with us today was immensely helpful and I enjoy every minute of exploring with all 4 kids in tow.  These moments are rare.  And the teenager didn't throw a fit about it because I promised him that he only hast to get up early once next week and the rest of the week is all his to command.

Whoops, I left the lunches out in plain view and Abishai wanted them for breakfast.

Indianapolis Zoo, not the biggest or best, but more than I had growing up.

Scratching his/her itch.

Sharks! Sting rays!

Lionfish!  I'm so glad I remember my memory card this time! I didn't remember it last year and I had to rely on my phone, which didn't have a ton of room.  Plus, the DSLR takes way better photos than an iPhone.

Keturah on the left, trying to get the sharks with her friend.

Jared texted me and said to remember to put the "daredevil" on the "leash."  Bwahahaha, yes, he was referring to Abishai, and this picture is a prime reason why he said it!  No, I didn't use the leash, but I had Benaiah has my backup parent.  Abishai climbed every fence he could with no fear.  Daredevil he is.

Abishai was much more engaged this year!  He LOVE IT!  He even said "Way cool! Awesome!"

We went with our friends, the Lands.  Keturah and their oldest, Sara, are friends (although Sarah is 1 ft taller than her).

Nemo! Starfish!

Very, very fat penguins.  I don't know if they get this fat in the wild.  Abishai loved watching them.

I love it when I think my camera did an ok job of capturing a photo and then I load them up and I'm like, "Wow, I actually got that perfectly on film!)  This is one of those pictures I can say that with.

The dolphin show was going on while we were under the dome, so we watched them zoom fast around their tank and then up in the air or hang in front of the platform.

Lemurs!  Justin asked to see something that climbs and jumps like lemurs and monkeys.  Keturah wanted dolphins, Benaiah didn't care, and Abishai wanted to share the elephants.

Turtle!  Abishai got down on the floor to find it when it under the ramp.

Timon, the Meerkat!

I realized that I never take pictures of the foliage in each zone, so at least in the Desserts zone, I looked up a bit.

Venomous and non-venomous snakes and lizards from all over.  Abishai didn't really want to see them.

But, Abishai was willing to get into the pretend snake.

Mommy, monkeys!

I think this is the same baby we saw a year ago.  I believe it takes a few years for the orangutans to grow to full size, like humans do.  Mischievous little guy though and cute!  And Abishai was obsessed with him!

Baby orangutan hand, the same size as Abishai's hand.

Adult orangutan hand, same size as ours.   These creatures have so many similarities to us, and yet, they are not us.

Dump 'em out truck!

Playground time!  It hasn't changed in like 14 years!  Perfect shot of Abishai's swiftness.

The orangatuns are allowed to sometimes climb up too their high hanging climbing platforms.  The platforms have electric wires so they can't climb down.  If you can see here, there's a climbing chute and hole in the first platform.  Then they can climb over to the other platforms using the ladder you see there or on heavy duty rubberized rope.

Abishai said, "Rainbow!"

He can also say, "Flamingo. Zebra. Wildebest. Giraffe. (etc.)"  Fattest ducks I have seen, too.

Watching the zebras and wildebeasts.

There was 10 of us today.  Yup, our friends have 4 kids, 3 girls and 1 boy and we have our 4 kids.  It was a great day hanging out with new friends!  They don't live far from us either.  But the kids do go to public school so it's hard to meet up during the week.  We do see them at church and kids' choir most weeks.

Giraffes!  Keturah had brought out the giraffe stuffed animal we have, as well as the walrus and bear, and Abishai carried it around all day!  He wanted to bring cars, too, but I said now.  We did not get to see the walrus today because he was napping in a corner behind a large rock.

Sleepy lion.

Squirrel on the outside of the baboons' pen.

Daredevil.

When Abishai saw this, he immediately wanted to do this, despite another kid throwing a fit about it.

Elephants!

Oh, Abishai, doing his own thing, eating a snack in front of the warthog.  I'm glad he's not scared of the animals.

One of the newer exhibits that replaced the farm animal exhibit is the exotic bird exhibit.

Caw! Caw!

Gorgeous birds!  They are so different than our blend in with the trees backyard birds we have here in North America.  I mean you have your cardinals and bluejays, but most backyard birds are brown, black, gray, and white.

Vivid color!  We had to be careful and only open one door of a two door entrance at a time because the birds will escape.

And over here, we have The Big One in his natural habitat.  He's yawning because he stayed up late talking oon the phone.

Beautiful carousel.

Bears!

It's another rainbow!

Natural habitat of a contemporary teen.

Huge pavilion for lots of big activities and shows, like with the Macaw.

Typically, you don't need tickets at the 10:30am show to get in to the dolphin show, but you do need it for the 2 pm show, which is what we went back to see.  So, the other mom, Katie, went back to admissions to get them.  They were out of them!  It's free, but they need a general headcount because it's such a large building and they can't go over the maximum per the fire code. So, we waited here while we watched a ton of people walked past.

Finally, Katie asked the ticket collector if we could still get in.  He said yes, but probably only because he saw Katie and one of her daughters standing next to her.  But we did get in, and there was just enough room.  Yeah!  It's the only thing Keturah talked about all day.  And Abishai sat still or stood still for most of it.  I'm so glad he's a bit older and can handle a 20 minute show like this.

Got to see a ton of friendly waves and hugs and chin rubbing.  This guy said he started working at the zoo at 14 yrs old by cleaning up the extra water in the splash zone.  At the time, he thought he would be a manager somewhere in middle management, but instead, the job led him to his career and now he works full time with the zoo!  And he's not super young or anything.  Maybe 30?  Cool!

Following cues.

This is "Indy" the dolphin, who was born right there, in this dolphin pavilion, in 2001.  Cool!

This dolphin and the other one on the opposite side, threw the ball up into the upper stands!

Spins and flipper waves and dancing on their tails.

Showing off!

Some of the dolphins can do double and triple flips!

Hitting the ball!

Last "ta da" pose!

My boys, Big, Little and Skinny.

Twins!

Hugs, just because!

That's a neat way to sell a tube full of animals!

Oh my goodness, these were so pretty!  I didn't look at the price though.  I love that they stock stuffed animals to match most of their exhibited animals.  You can find the "hard to find" stuffed animals here, like the walrus and the giraffe, which I think we bought one of those here one year.

Of course he found the truck bin in the gift shop!

I guess these didn't make it through Benaiah and Justin.  Actually, we all need new sneakers this fall.  I've worn my out, and I've had them for something 10 years.  My knees are telling me to replace them soon, as well as the shoes themselves are tearing apart.  But cheap sneakers times 4 equals something like $80, so we'll have to take it one kid at a time.  Abishai and Jared don't need shoes right now.

The map got smaller and less glossy.  I didn't even need it though.  I've been here enough that I even know where a lot of the bathrooms are, lol.  I've nursed some of the kids in those bathrooms!  But they do have a nice nursing mom room up near the birds.  Either way, it was a great day!  Thank you Land family for inviting us to come with you!