Lincoln Park Zoo

This summer, the kids and I made a "bucket list" of things we wanted to do before school starts. They unanimously voted on Lincoln Park zoo. We went last summer with some friends and had a marvelous time; however, Steve wasn't with us and the kids wanted to show it to their dad. A few Saturdays ago, we had a void in the schedule and the weather was supposed to cooperate for a few hours, so we headed over to Chicago. It did rain on us, but we survived and managed to take shelter in a few enclosed exhibits. Evan was extremely disappointed in the Birds of Prey exhibit (1 hawk and 1 vulture), but the monkeys, apes, meerkats, lions, and bats made up for them.

This is a tunnel for a close-up of the brown bear. He was more subdued this visit, but the kids still love anything they can climb on or in.

Aren't they darling?

This is for the wolf exhibit. We saw no wolves, but heard plenty of howling from my little animals.:)

These lions are gorgeous! They were enjoying the rain outside.

I love outings with my kids!

Carter's favorite animals at the zoo: meerkats. They stare you down and tilt their head to the side like a dog when you talk to them. They are absolutely adorable!

Below is one of the 8 gorillas in this exhibit. This was amazing! One young gorilla got a coconut and figured out how to hit it to get some of the milk out. He'd pour it in his hand and then lap it up in his mouth. Two others would hide behind these stalks and try to take it from him. After getting a small piece chipped off, he left the rest for the others to enjoy. We had so much fun observing this family. It reminded me a bit of my own. ;)

The white-lipped deer had an impressive rack.

Afterwards, we wanted to try another Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives restaurant and even drove to 2 of them. Due to the nature of the locations and decorated people inside, we didn't feel it wise to take our 5 precious little ones out of the van. We found a gyros eatery and let our kids try a gyro while they ate hot dogs and hamburgers. It's so fun to introduce them to new foods because we're always surprised at their reactions. Hopefully, next time Evan won't sing "Mary had a little lamb" and make Emma teary.