HallZOOween!

We had a BLAST this past weekend at the zoo for HallZOOween!  The weather was remarkably cooler than it has been, and a few sprinkles must have scared everyone off, we had the place to ourselves when we arrived.  K & T were excited to go with a teacher pal of mine and her daughter (known as Big K throughout this post).  This was our first trip back to the zoo since school has started, and boy have we missed it!  The kids chose their costumes that morning based on the weather and what we could layer up.   We have different plans for the actual holiday.  They went with their favorite dress ups, T as a firefighter, and K as Rapunzel (or Tangled as she calls it).  They were really excited to do a little trick or treating, and of course, to be outside for the day; but both had a list of animals that they wanted to see. K's must sees were the elephants and the giraffes.  T wanted to see the bats and the goats and to ride the train.   Happy HallZOOween!

T was all bundled up and ready to visit one of his favorite places, the elephants at the zoo.  I didn't get a picture, but one of the elephants was actually drinking from the pool near their exhibit.  We stood there watching for quite a few minutes as the elephant sucked water up her trunk and then squirted it into her mouth.  We both thought it was awesome when the elephant blew bubbles in the water as she was refilling her trunk!  T reminded me that he does that with his milk when he is with Nana at lunch.  :)

Here's Big K & K ready for a day of fun!  The kids love to play with Big K who babysits for us occasionally. 

The kids got to practice saying, "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" at each treat station.  By the end of the trip they were remembering on their own.  Such good little kiddos.   

Mr. Sweet Tooth wanted to eat all of this candy right away, but settled on just a couple of pieces at my insistence.  If given a choice of candy colors, this guy always go for blue, his favorite color.  If he got candy of other colors, he would correctly tell me that he got orange, Daddy's favorite color, or purple, Mommy's favorite, or pink, K's favorite, or green, Nana's favorite.  What a smartie this guy is!  

K doesn't have much of a sweet tooth unless it involves chocolate, but she loved walking to each treat station and checking out the goods.  We really did walk up to every table with no lines this year.  It was a great day to go.

The giraffes are always fun to watch.  What awesome creatures they are.

We all found it interesting that the flamingos were in the water when it was so cold!

T & K loved climbing all over these lions, it's usually too hot in the summer to play on.  

This was a first too, we have never seen this lioness before, and there she was, just standing a few feet away from us!  And then we turned and saw... 

...this guy!  He is usually sleeping in the grasses in the back and we have to stare and squint to see him.  Good thing that's thick glass!

One of the coolest things we saw all day!  The kids were a little nervous at this point, but Big K helped them stay calm.  We didn't actually hear a roar, so maybe this was a yawn?  Still very impressive though.

And then the lion just sat down. True story!

Posing for a quick fall pic while munching on popcorn.

T was so happy to be riding the train, he could hardly sit down!

K and Big K had a great time too!

And look who was driving the train, Elsa from Frozen!  K was super excited to take a picture with her.  T waved 'hi' to Elsa, but didn't want a picture.

Taking a little play break at the playground before lunch.

Of course we had to ride the carousel!  Here's T & me taking a quick selfie.

We hit a few more treat stations as we walked about.   T started using his hat to carry his goods instead of his bag.  

One more quick fall pic!

And on the way out, K saw Big Boy and asked to have her picture taken with him. Both kids love to eat there, and K especially loves the vegetable soup from the salad bar.   

We had a grand time at the zoo with our friends.  It was just a bonus that it was trick or treating too. We can't wait to go back. Happy HallZOOween!