Who's New at the Zoo?

My friend Kylie invited us to go to the Hogle Zoo with her on her buddy pass. Free zoo tickets? Yes, please! And we had so much fun! Kylie has two kids as well, Kaleena, 2 1/2, and Duncan, 1. So we loaded all our kiddos and strollers into Kylie's van and off we went.

We got there early to avoid the heat and crowds, which was great until I realized that I forgot Austin's formula. I swear I forget something for the kids every time I leave the house.  So Kylie watched the kids and I took the baby and drove over to the store. Once I got back, the kids were more then ready to go check out the animals.

We couldn't find the otters. They must have been sleeping. 

 So we played at the log near the otter exhibit.  

Peek-a-boo Ethan!

 Ethan loved this statue. He wanted to climb up by himself. 

 We spent the majority of our time at the sea lion tank. The three sea lions and one harbor seal would swim in circles around their tank and always come right by this window. 

 It was cute watching Kaleena and Ethan get so excited when a sea lion would swim by.

 Kaleena and Ethan-best buds!

They didn't want to get back in the strollers so they held hands and tugged each other over to the windows so they could see the harbor seal better.  

 This is Big Guy. He's a blind rescued harbor seal. Since he can't see, he swims around in a big circle and then flops up onto the rock before jumping back in and swimming around again. They said he is almost 700lbs which is bigger then their polar bear!

 The polar bear enclosure was Ethan's favorite part of the day. The polar bear played with the kids at the window.

He did this over and over again. Ethan wasn't scared at all. I don't think he would have even squealed if it hadn't been for all the other little kids. He just turned around and smiled at me afterwards and told me "Fun! Fun, Momma!"

We also stopped by the Tiger enclosures.  

 I took Ethan and Kaleena on the carousel. Ethan loved riding the Elephant (he really was having a lot of fun) and Kaleena on her Cheetah. 

I took the kids inside the bird and reptile house. Ethan turned his hat around because he couldn't press his face up to the glass or enclosures with it forward. Funny kid. 

 We had a blast hanging out with Kylie and her kids at the zoo!