Free Day at the Denver Zoo

I came down with the flu the night we got back from the zoo - so this post is late...but I am happy to be coherent again! 

Monday (MLK Day) my friend Ramona and I decided to take advantage of the free day at the Denver Zoo and take the kids. I admit now that I should have thought more about the combination of a free day on a holiday...but, it just didn't occur to me. It was a lovely sunny day...so we packed into her van and set off for a fun adventure...and boy - it was an adventure!

It was so crazy and packed that we parked about a mile up the road in a neighborhood and hoofed it to the entrance. There are a great many things I love about Denver - but one of the biggest oversights I have ever endured was the long road to the Zoo with NO sidewalk...??? We were walking on dirt paths right next to traffic with little kids...eek! But we made it and as soon as we hit pavement Jacob and one of Ramona's kids fell at the exact same time :P. Scrapes kissed and knees rubbed and tears wiped away - we were ready to see some animals!

The Denver Zoo is different from our Zoo,  a lot of the animals are in more open and close proximity to the people.  They had a kangaroo in the same area as the ostrich's, and we sat and laughed for a while at the ostrich who was obsessed with chasing the kangaroo.

Beautiful mountain sheep (yep - the zoo sign called it a mountain sheep, not goat. Sheep have long hair...yep, I read those) I didn't get many pictures because the zoo was packed - it was like trying to find a seat at a major league sporting event trying to see anything. By this time I over heard the first drug deal (I was was caught off guard, especially to hear it while pointing out the lions to my 3 year old - hence, no picture.).
Because it was so busy, Ramona and I decided to make a short loop and get out of there. The kids were happy and entertained as the moms were herding them through as fast as we could while pushing through crowd after crowd. Jacob finally saw his first rino! I took 3 pics - and all of them look like this...someday we will get it together long enough for him to say "cheese" and not start to look away before the camera actually clicks...:P 
It was after this that I over heard the second drug deal....yep - time to get my kid and go. It was getting windy and we had seen the animals everyone wanted to see, so we were out of there, haha. Remembering that lovely dirt trail we walked on to get there, we thought the walk back would be fine. Well, we had to walk on the other side of the street this time, and it was not dirt...it was mostly wet and muddy. Can anyone get a 3 year old boy out of mud in one go??? If so - I would love to hear about it. Lets just say I kept Jacob from falling in the mud - by falling in it myself...yay. 

Ramona has a sister-in-law who lives in Denver, and we had planned to meet up with her, so we stopped at a park on the way home to meet them in all my muddy glory. Jacob loved it! He absolutely loves being with his friends - by the time we got to the park he was calling them his cousins. :) I loved being there with the other moms and talking while the kids played - and no drug deals...yay!

It was a great day for Jacob, and thanks to having a great friend for company to laugh it all off with - I had a great day too...