Winter Wildland

I should mention that we tried to go to the zoo 2 days before this night. I made hot cocoa, we got bundled up after getting the kids all excited to go...only to get there and it was closed! Jacob handled it well - but we had a funny conversation about it. It went a little something like this:

Jacob: "Daddy, why are we going? I wanted to go in the Zoo."

Michael: "Its closed Jacob, and all the animals are sleeping."

Jacob: "I think we can still go in, Dad."

Michael: "Its locked Jacob, we have to come again another night."

Jacob: "Dad, I think we could sneak."

Michael: "Sneak?"

Jacob: "Yep, Dad. I think we could sneak into the zoo right through there. Somebody could sneak in and wake up the lions. Someone should sneak in, Dad...and I think it should be me."

Maybe this is a hint of what I have to look forward to??  haha...

New Years Day we went to the Winter Wildland at the Zoo with the Worthington family. It was not too cold, and we brought some glow-in-the-dark bracelets...the makings for a fun time! They had really cool lights all throughout the zoo, and most of the animals that are asleep when we go during the day were wide awake - the lions, tiger, bears (haha). I got shivers down my spine when I heard the lions roar, I would never make it in the jungle!

They had a guy going around dressed up like the Grinch that kinda freaked out Jacob - so he stuck to these sculptures for a little while. He was all over the place that night...
The tiger was awake that night as well - and I never knew they yawned so loudly! They had a walkway going up the mountain with a big display of a tiger you had to walk through to get anywhere...and we had the lovely experience of going in the "back way"...
Reindeer! This picture makes him look really scary, but they were beautiful! Thanks to the LED light on Michael's keychain we also sat and watched the otters swim around for a while, Jacob told me that was his favorite part. 
They had open fire pits all throughout the zoo to help us stay warm...I had to take a picture because seeing all of us huddled around a fire like that made me very grateful to have a home to live in, especially on a cold winters night like that. As you can also see, Michael, Jacob and I got a little carried away with the glow bracelets - it was awesome! :)
We had fun walking around, talking...chasing after the kids mostly. :) The Christmas lights they had really were amazing. We will definitely make this a winter time tradition.