Dakota Zoo

Last Saturday we put an offer on an amazing house on 12th Street.. only to find out that we lost it to another buyer.  There were tears shed and all 3 kids fell asleep during church on Saturday night out of pure, raw emotion.  So by Sunday morning, it was time for some fun. 

We packed our lunch, loaded up the car, and began the 2 hour journey to the Dakota Zoo.  There were several times along the way that we doubted of decision, and thought our parade might truely be rained on, but we decided to stick with the plan.

I have to say, we pulled into the small gravel parking lot and thought, "Well, this trip will be short!".  It seemed so small compared to the Indianapolis Zoo that we're used to.  But again, we stuck with the plan and went inside.  After a long car ride, the first thing David spotted was the playground!  So, we went with it. 

Not long after the kids began playing, we knew the rain was not going to hold off much longer. 

The woman at the front gate told us the best places to keep dry, so we headed off to visit the snakes.  By the time we finished with the snakes, the rain was done.  It turned out perfectly! 

This zoo is actually much more like a park (think "We Bought a Zoo").  You follow the trails, you see some animals-- it's great.  The crowds were low as well, so we didn't have to encage our youngest animal to a stroller either.   These monkeys put on quite the show.  You could hear their interesting noises throughout most of the zoo.

We ran out through a long open field to meet Mama Llama and Baby Llama.

We met a wolf or two which looked quite tame, almost tame enough to take home with us.

And we saw a tiger from two angle, from the side and from underneath!

This animal was so ferosious, we tried hard to keep our distance!

We watched while some cubs had a battle in the pond.

These emus had no problem being up close and personal with us.  Although seeing them made me want to bust out in song ("If I had a million dollars; I'd buy you an exotic pet like a llama or an emu").  The kids were fascinated with their "ears".

It was at this point that my camera began telling me "Camera Exhausted"-- no joke.  So, the rest is photo-less.  We went into a monkey house (no, you're exactly right, it smelled horrible).  After the monkeys we fed various types of birds right out of our hands and we ended the day with a train ride (Guess which toddler did NOT want to leave the train?).  We thought that we had seen all of the animals during our walk, but the train ride proved that we had missed a lot, including reindeer! I guess those will have to be on the must-see list for next time!  It was such a fun, laid back day, especially compared to the craziness that was the day before.  We almost didn't want to leave.  After the long drive home we picked up Papa Murphy's and a couple Red Boxes-- including "We Bought a Zoo"-- again!