Racine Zoo

As part of our desperate efforts to get in fun stuff before having to go back to school, we went to Racine Zoo with Kathy and Maddy last week. I hadn't been since high school and Chad didn't even know Racine had a zoo so it was like a whole new zoo to us...and Jordan had never been either (obviously).

It is a small zoo but it is way nicer than I remember so they have been taking care of it nicely. One of the things we really thought was cool is that they had lots of things to do to interact with the animals. We just so happened to walk right up to the giraffe as they were starting the Giraffe Encounter where you actually get to feed a giraffe! I was all about it, lately I think that I am much more likely to fork over the $5 to do something that's cool just so I don't regret it later. And guess what, I so don't regret that I did this. It was pretty cool to be that close to a real life giraffe. I put my hand out to touch the giraffe's whiskers after he took my cracker. How cool is that? This was the coolest part of the zoo for me! (So cool that I moved it right to the beginning of this post, so the pictures are kind of out of order.)

I love seeing Maddy and Jordan play together. They have a lot of fun with each other and they are just so cute with each other. These are pelicans!

Chad with mountain goats! You kind of have to look closely at the picture but they are lounging up on the top of the rocks.

Meerkats! It was fun to watch them digging!

I thought these guys were pretty cute.

There were peacocks wandering around all over the zoo. We didn't get to see any show its feathers, but they are still beautiful just sitting in the grass. Oh, and if you are one of those kids who we saw chasing the peacocks, stop. And if you are one of the parents of the kids who were chasing the peacocks, please tell you kids to stop. Seriously.

How cute are these penguins! I love that they were all lined up waiting for fishies. I love penguins.

I think Maddy was doing something funny with her face or plugging her nose or something but it had Jordan in complete hysterics. He was cracking up. It was so cute to hear his little laugh. I love it.

I so love this picture! I feel like we don't take that many "group" pictures or pictures of us with the kids and with each other and this one is just a great picture. I'm so printing it out. It's me, Maddy, Kathy, and Jordan.

Chad took Maddy and Jordan on this train around the zoo while Kathy and I sat on a perfect bench in the shade for a few minutes. Ah.

They even had a playground area with two different climbing places. It was small but these kiddos were having fun!

That was our Racine Zoo experience! It was a great one! I think it was the perfect size and so relaxed and nice. Check it out!