Showing posts with label zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zoo. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Summer Vacation 2014--Day 1
On our first day of Summer Vacation with my niece and nephew, we went to the San Antonio Zoo. The kids love visiting zoos, and we love doing what they love, so we braved the near 100 degree temps and visited the animals. We rounded out our day trip with a train ride and picnic.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
A Day of Fun
When I heard my niece and nephew were coming, I asked them what they wanted to do. They sent me their list of places to go and foods to eat. Since we only have a short time, I had to figure out how to make the most of their time and squeeze in as much as possible.
8:00 am--Breakfast at McDonald's
9:00 am--Dallas Zoo
We have passes, so we hit the specific places they want to see when we have limited time. We covered one whole area of the zoo, and then we went to 3 specific places on the other side. They both touched snakes, saw what they wanted, and had a great time.
12:00 pm--Lunch at Subway
Since we were downtown and didn't have too far to go, we had to find somewhere they wanted to go and in our location.
1:30 pm--Perot Museum
We visited every floor, seeing what they wanted, spending time where they wanted, and had a blast. The museum did a great job covering all the tested materials for 5th and 8th grades, so I pointed out what they will both need. :-) Always the educator!
4:45 pm--Walmart
5:30 pm--Church Small Group Pot Luck
When the kids are with me, I do and plan what they want to do, and I focus all my time and energy on them. My church small group had a pot luck/gathering planned for today, so I asked my niece and nephew if they wanted to go or do something else. I gave them all the details so they could make a good decision. Not only did they agree they wanted to go, they were going to get to see my BFF's children too, children they love to see/play with. We had a great time visiting, and by the end, all of the children were in the hot tub or pool--fully clothed. My niece and nephew had the best time, and it makes me so happy. We had tasty pulled pork, homemade mac and cheese, fruits, vegetables, potato salads, coleslaws, and desserts.
8:30/9:00 pm--Taco Casa
Yes, we ate at the pot luck, but we had planned to have dinner at Taco Casa (before we decided t go to the pot luck), and my niece didn't forget, so we went and got a "snack."
10:00/10:30 pm--The kids passed out for the night.
I was so blessed today! I absolutely love those two darlings, and I love watching them learn and have fun. Thank you, Lord, for a wonderful day!
8:00 am--Breakfast at McDonald's
9:00 am--Dallas Zoo
We have passes, so we hit the specific places they want to see when we have limited time. We covered one whole area of the zoo, and then we went to 3 specific places on the other side. They both touched snakes, saw what they wanted, and had a great time.
12:00 pm--Lunch at Subway
Since we were downtown and didn't have too far to go, we had to find somewhere they wanted to go and in our location.
1:30 pm--Perot Museum
We visited every floor, seeing what they wanted, spending time where they wanted, and had a blast. The museum did a great job covering all the tested materials for 5th and 8th grades, so I pointed out what they will both need. :-) Always the educator!
4:45 pm--Walmart
5:30 pm--Church Small Group Pot Luck
When the kids are with me, I do and plan what they want to do, and I focus all my time and energy on them. My church small group had a pot luck/gathering planned for today, so I asked my niece and nephew if they wanted to go or do something else. I gave them all the details so they could make a good decision. Not only did they agree they wanted to go, they were going to get to see my BFF's children too, children they love to see/play with. We had a great time visiting, and by the end, all of the children were in the hot tub or pool--fully clothed. My niece and nephew had the best time, and it makes me so happy. We had tasty pulled pork, homemade mac and cheese, fruits, vegetables, potato salads, coleslaws, and desserts.
8:30/9:00 pm--Taco Casa
Yes, we ate at the pot luck, but we had planned to have dinner at Taco Casa (before we decided t go to the pot luck), and my niece didn't forget, so we went and got a "snack."
10:00/10:30 pm--The kids passed out for the night.
I was so blessed today! I absolutely love those two darlings, and I love watching them learn and have fun. Thank you, Lord, for a wonderful day!
Elephants
Lioness
Monorail
Alligator Encounter
Touching a snake
Learning about rocks
Life Science floor
Swimming in April
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Family Time at the Zoo
After sleeping over at the zoo with my Girl Scout troop, I spent the rest of the day with my niece, nephew, and mom.
Mom and my nephew brought Whataburger, so we shared our experience with them as we ate. We then made sure to see everything the kids wanted to see. My niece shared what she learned whenever we looked at animals we had seen overnight.
We could tell rain was coming again, and they had seen all they wanted, so we headed to the cars around 4:00 pm. We pulled out around 4:20--22 hours and 20 minutes after I arrived. :-)
The kids LOVE the zoo, and I love enjoying it with them!
Mom and my nephew brought Whataburger, so we shared our experience with them as we ate. We then made sure to see everything the kids wanted to see. My niece shared what she learned whenever we looked at animals we had seen overnight.
Checking out the Comics based on insects
Checking out various foods made from insects
Wonderful helpers!
I love watching them enjoy themselves!
Albino Alligator
Looking at the Alligators
Alligators
Reptiles
Alligator or Crocodile?
We have a picture in this very spot when my niece was barely able to hold herself up there.
My how they have grown!
Otters
Tiger
My mom loves Koalas.
We could tell rain was coming again, and they had seen all they wanted, so we headed to the cars around 4:00 pm. We pulled out around 4:20--22 hours and 20 minutes after I arrived. :-)
The kids LOVE the zoo, and I love enjoying it with them!
Our Zoo Overnight Girl Scout Experience
I spent around 22 hours 20 minutes at the zoo. Why, you ask? Our older Girl Scouts needed to learn about animal habitats for a badge. We allow our girls to vote on how to spend their troop money, and they chose to spend the night at the zoo. We finally did it last night.
All the girls met at my house, and we packed the truck. We arrived at the zoo at 6:00 and found us a picnic table to enjoy our sack dinners. Around 6:30, we loaded all of our things into a van for the zoo folks to transport to our sleeping area. In preparing for this event, we were told we could bring air mattresses, but they had to be twin size. We really knew nothing else for certain about our sleeping arrangements. We thought, by the brochure descriptor and inferring everything else, that we would be sleeping in the educational building by the elephants, giraffes, and ostriches. Oh, were we wrong!
Once everyone arrived, they took us inside the zoo for a restroom break and introductions. We split into our groups (there was another multilevel troop there), and off we went.
We saw flamingos, BugUniversity, birds of prey, giant tortoises, the reptile building, and the koalas. With everything we saw, we learned numerous facts. Because the reptiles are on a strict schedule of light and dark, we could not use our flashlights. There were pretty much no lights on inside the building. If you had a flashlight that showed red light, then you could use that. The guides were supposed to have red tissue paper for us to put over our flashlights, but they didn't. While we couldn't see everything, it was still neat to be in there in the dark.
Once back outside, they had the girls close their ears and then put a tuning fork under their chins. This represented what a snake "heard."
The Koalas are from the San Diego Zoo, and our guide is friends with the Koala keepers there, so he could give us all kinds of facts. They had red lights on inside their habitat, so we could see them without or flashlights too. (These pics were taken Saturday afternoon in the daylight.)
While looking at the Koalas, our guide got a call that a
storm was moving in, and we had to move to shelter. We went from the Koalas to the Children's Zoo
and stayed inside the Nature Exchange building for at least an hour,
maybe longer. At one point, it was raining so hard and so fast, I
thought it was hailing b/c it was so loud. The girls were entertained with
books, thousands of artifacts, zoo maps, and themselves. They gave the girls a snack
while we waited too.
The rain let up enough that we were taken to the auditorium to see Ferrets, a snake, an Opposum, and a Bearded Dragon.
They got a tiny grill and got some flames going to roast marmallows, and we ate S'mores in the auditorium.
The rain had
let up and went back and forth between drizzling and not raining at all.
We had to unload our gear from the van, and we learned we would be sleeping in platform tents. Yes, tents! I talked to the girls a
little about being in a tent. We thought we would have to split our
group in half, but instead, they moved a bed into one tent so all the
girls could be together. Wonderful! They put the adults right next to
them.
Some may be thinking . . . How are your girls this age and have not slept in a tent? Well, b/c the leaders do not prefer tent camping, and we do not go camping in locations needing tents, so . . . the girls have not had that experience yet. They will . . . someday.
There were bunk cots, so the girls picked their spots and started getting ready for bed. Of course, it was already near 11:00 pm by now. We got them all settled and got ourselves settled and then we heard great commotion. One girl's top bed collapsed on another girl's bottom bed. Thank goodness the bottom girl was curled up in a tiny ball at the corner where the bed didn't completely fall. We got everyone resettled, made sure smaller bodies were on top, and went back to bed.
We had to be up at 7:00 am. One of our adults, the first one up, said the girls were up at 6:30 am. By the time I walked in to check on them at 7:03, most were packed and just about ready to go. Greatness! We reloaded the van and walked to the Savanna area and had fruit, muffins, and juice. They hadn't let the animals out yet, so all we saw were pooper scoopers working.
At 8:30 am, we went back to about where we slept to see a lady talk about an alligator, which she carried like it was not a dangerous animal, a hawk, a tortoise, a chinchilla, and a penguin, which she let walk around, and walked straight up to me.
We had 10-15 minutes to look wherever we wanted.
At 9:30 am, we rode the monorail.
(I didn't post all of the pictures of the animals we saw while on the monorail.)
At 10:00 am, were were done.
We retrieved our gear from the van and put it in our own cars. We then started our workshop. We went to the Children's Zoo to begin and look at domestic animals--goats, pigs, rabbits, ponies.
We then looked at Tamarins, monkeys, tigers, otters, and Koalas.
We then went to see mandrills, elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and a few other things in that area. We finished around 12:15.
It was a great experience! Once all the parents picked up their children, my niece and I stayed at the zoo to explore again with my nephew and mom.
All the girls met at my house, and we packed the truck. We arrived at the zoo at 6:00 and found us a picnic table to enjoy our sack dinners. Around 6:30, we loaded all of our things into a van for the zoo folks to transport to our sleeping area. In preparing for this event, we were told we could bring air mattresses, but they had to be twin size. We really knew nothing else for certain about our sleeping arrangements. We thought, by the brochure descriptor and inferring everything else, that we would be sleeping in the educational building by the elephants, giraffes, and ostriches. Oh, were we wrong!
Once everyone arrived, they took us inside the zoo for a restroom break and introductions. We split into our groups (there was another multilevel troop there), and off we went.
We saw flamingos, BugUniversity, birds of prey, giant tortoises, the reptile building, and the koalas. With everything we saw, we learned numerous facts. Because the reptiles are on a strict schedule of light and dark, we could not use our flashlights. There were pretty much no lights on inside the building. If you had a flashlight that showed red light, then you could use that. The guides were supposed to have red tissue paper for us to put over our flashlights, but they didn't. While we couldn't see everything, it was still neat to be in there in the dark.
Flamingos
BugUniversity
Being Birds of Prey
How far can you turn your head?
Tortoises
Once back outside, they had the girls close their ears and then put a tuning fork under their chins. This represented what a snake "heard."
Being Snakes
The Koalas are from the San Diego Zoo, and our guide is friends with the Koala keepers there, so he could give us all kinds of facts. They had red lights on inside their habitat, so we could see them without or flashlights too. (These pics were taken Saturday afternoon in the daylight.)
The rain let up enough that we were taken to the auditorium to see Ferrets, a snake, an Opposum, and a Bearded Dragon.
They got a tiny grill and got some flames going to roast marmallows, and we ate S'mores in the auditorium.
These tent pictures were taken Saturday morning in the daylight.
This particular tent was where the girls slept.
I had never seen bunk cots before.
Some may be thinking . . . How are your girls this age and have not slept in a tent? Well, b/c the leaders do not prefer tent camping, and we do not go camping in locations needing tents, so . . . the girls have not had that experience yet. They will . . . someday.
There were bunk cots, so the girls picked their spots and started getting ready for bed. Of course, it was already near 11:00 pm by now. We got them all settled and got ourselves settled and then we heard great commotion. One girl's top bed collapsed on another girl's bottom bed. Thank goodness the bottom girl was curled up in a tiny ball at the corner where the bed didn't completely fall. We got everyone resettled, made sure smaller bodies were on top, and went back to bed.
We had to be up at 7:00 am. One of our adults, the first one up, said the girls were up at 6:30 am. By the time I walked in to check on them at 7:03, most were packed and just about ready to go. Greatness! We reloaded the van and walked to the Savanna area and had fruit, muffins, and juice. They hadn't let the animals out yet, so all we saw were pooper scoopers working.
At 8:30 am, we went back to about where we slept to see a lady talk about an alligator, which she carried like it was not a dangerous animal, a hawk, a tortoise, a chinchilla, and a penguin, which she let walk around, and walked straight up to me.
We had 10-15 minutes to look wherever we wanted.
At 9:30 am, we rode the monorail.
(I didn't post all of the pictures of the animals we saw while on the monorail.)
At 10:00 am, were were done.
We retrieved our gear from the van and put it in our own cars. We then started our workshop. We went to the Children's Zoo to begin and look at domestic animals--goats, pigs, rabbits, ponies.
Goats will eat maps.
Naked Mole Rats
Mongoose
From inside the mongoose habitat
We then looked at Tamarins, monkeys, tigers, otters, and Koalas.
We then went to see mandrills, elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and a few other things in that area. We finished around 12:15.
It was a great experience! Once all the parents picked up their children, my niece and I stayed at the zoo to explore again with my nephew and mom.
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