Day off from school and heading to the zoo!

We live near one of the greatest zoo's on the planet, Hogel Zoo. It is in Salt Lake City and it is the perfect size with some really amazing animals. We usually arrive right after it opens at around 10am and we stay until naptime which is around 1pm. My kids LOVE it. And that is even an understatement. I get them out of the car and they are on the go from the moment we walk through the gate. We first hit this amazing giant ball which is floating in water and you can spin. The kids dig it and my son loves it just cause there is water involved. I have had to pull him out of the water many times. We then head straight to the monkeys. And everyone in the zoo knows we are heading towards the monkeys cause my 2 kids are screaming...MONKEY'S the entire time. They sit there and stare at the monkeys for a long long time. Sometimes I think they are having a genuine stare-off. They have all types of monkeys and we spend a solid 10 minutes at each station. Soon after we have given enough love to the monkeys, we head over to the Elephants. The Elephants are SUPER special at the Hogel Zoo cause they had a baby not long ago. And if you have never seen a baby elephant then you have not seen the cutest biggest thing in the whole world. It is still enormous...I mean like lots of tons enormous but it is still tiny in elephant's standards. We know we have hit the mother lode when mom and baby are hanging outside for us to see. Beyond the other amazing animals like the giraffe's, gorillas, tigers, rhinos, birds, and many others, they also have a rockin carousel that is brand new, it seems as well as a train. These are both the perfect break points in our cruise around the zoo. We usually finish things off with a good 30 minutes in their killer playground with giant insects and snakes and several slides. And, of course, the only thing that will get them to leave is saved for the very end. I usually bring them in to get their choice of a "frozen treat". They usually go for one of my favorites, the Push-Up Pop. I didn't know they were still around until I started going to the zoo. So, imagine this, all this fun is completed in about 2 hours. We see everything and don't feel overwhelmed or over walked. It is one of our favorite outings and because there is no school, we are heading there tomorrow. Watch out Monkeys! Here we come!