A Polar Bear For Joseph . . .

I am a little out of chronological order here because the last post was about WalkAmerica on Sunday, and this post will be about last Saturday, the day before WalkAmerica. I apologize, but I felt that WalkAmerica deserved its own post and I also wanted people to get a chance to read this one, so please . . . Bear with me!!! (Puns are a terrible thing, but sometimes they happen.)

On Saturday, we took Emily to the Brookfield Zoo to see the baby polar bear that was also born on December 14, 2006. (This fact is very exciting to me because polar bears are my favorite animal.) I also really like Moose, in fact it may be a tie, but the zoo doesn't have Moose, so we went to see the bears.

We started the day with a quick visit to Great Grandpa Bob. Emily was all smiles once again, and seeing as we had told her that we were going to the zoo, she began to think that Grandpa Bob's place was the zoo, and she wondered where all the animals were. We explained to her that this was a pre-zoo stop and we would get there soon. After saying our good-byes, we were on our way.

We arrived at the zoo and immediately Emily let us know that the first thing she wanted to do was eat lunch. We made it through the entrance and then immediately lost each other . . . I stopped to read a sign about the new zoo babies and Christa wandered off (with a crying Emily) frantically looking for a shady bench so that she could appease Emily's hunger and make her stop crying. By the time I turned around, they were gone and I wondered where they went. They got to a bench and wondered where I was (Christa thought I had been right behind them). Christa decided not to go looking for me because then we'd both be wandering around looking for each other, she just stayed put and fed Emily and figured that I'd end up there eventually. After several frantic minutes, I finally located them and all was right with the world. We learned a valuable lesson here, next time we go anywhere like this, we need to bring our 2-way radios so that we can contact each other, or Christa needs to not leave her cell phone in her purse, in the car.

Once Emily finished her lunch, it was finally time to see the animals . . . after Christa visited the gift shop. We stopped to look around the shop and picked up our free members t-shirt and a couple of cute little animals for Emily. At this point, she thought the zoo wasn't that much different from all of the other stores we go to, and frankly she wasn't that impressed. I told her to just wait a few more minutes and indulge Mommy's need to shop, and we would see some animals soon.

As soon as we were able to pry Christa away from the gift shop, we headed over to the Lion enclosure. Unfortunately, the Lion has a bit of a bad back so you could only view him from the front of his enclosure. The lion, as usual, was very exciting; I don't think that even Emily could sleep as much as this guy. From there we went on to the Tiger, who is always a crowd pleaser. Emily, at this point, was having loads of fun. We left the big cats to head over to see the bears, and on the way, we stopped to do a little shopping.

Once we got to the bears, the excitement had really kicked in. I will say that while I love the bears, usually they are about as exciting as the lion. Today, however, was a different story. When we arrived at the first enclosure it was . . . empty. So we moved on to the next enclosure and found both Alaskan Brown Bears playing in their pool. (This enclosure is connected to the empty one, both bears were together which explains the empty enclosure.) We watched the brown bears for a few minutes and then moved on to the main attraction, THE POLAR BEAR CUB!!! We arrived at the enclosure aaaaaannnnnnnddddd.................it was empty! At least we thought so, but after staring at the empty enclosure for a minute, the little guy appeared, climbing out of the area that would normally be filled with water. (Until he gets a little bigger it is filled with hay.) He had been down inside there and right up against the front edge, just out of view. We watched him for about 30 minutes as he played and romped around and pestered his mother. It was terrific, and Emily was enthralled.

After the bears, we headed over to see the wolves. On the way, we stopped at TWO stores. I am beginning to wonder if the zoo has more animals, or shopping outlets; I am leaning towards the shopping. We looked at the wolves briefly, and then took a quick walk around the lake to see the swans, geese & ducks, and just stretch our legs a bit. At this point, it was getting late and the zoo was getting ready to close. We headed toward the gate, and decided to make a quick stop at one of the gift shops that we had missed.

This was the end of Emily's exciting day at the zoo; a good time was had by all. Emily decided that she had so much fun that she wants to come back again soon.

Emily could hardly contain her excitement over her first trip to the Brookfield Zoo. She even picked out her "zoo pants," just for the occasion. These pants are pink with giraffes, elephants, cheetahs, and other such creatures printed on them.

Now that Emily is done eating, and safely in the Snugli, we're off to see some animals!

Our first stop was the lion, who was sleeping (as usual), next door to the lion is the tiger. The tiger is usually much more active. Here we are watching the tiger walk his territory.

So far Emily has seen Lions and Tigers, the Bears are next, Oh My!

Emily is showing that she is not quite as big as a tiger yet, but she is definitely on her way.

Look at how brave Emily is . . . with no regard for her own safety, she is shielding Daddy from the scary tiger!

After visiting with that mean tiger, Emily wanted to see something a little less frightening. She liked this peacock a lot, and she is not yet quite as big as a peacock.

Modeling her new hat, she told us that she wants to save this hat to wear for the WalkAmerica tomorrow, since we are both wearing baseball caps.

On our way to the Bear Grotto, we passed these goofy geese posing on top of the fountain. They weren't moving a muscle, just standing there on top of that fountain, like statues. It was really funny.

Upon arriving at the Bear Grotto, the first bears that we got to were the Brown Bears. They were having a lot of fun playing in their pool on a hot sunny day.

We finally made it to our main attraction . . . The Polar Bears!! These guys are our favorites, there are times that we go to Brookfield Zoo, look at the Polar Bears and then leave. We LOVE the Polar Bears. Another reason that it is so appropriate that this new little guy was born on December 14, 2006!!!!!

He was having a BALL playing with his Rubbermaid lid and this plastic log. He was really funny to watch and was sooooo full of energy.

Emily was having a really good time at the zoo. After another bottle, she got some playtime with Daddy before heading off to see the wolves.

Emily didn't seem to care about the wolves, she was having too much fun chewing on "Cow's" horns and ears. She's so loving . . .

After such a busy and fun day at the zoo, Emily decided to relax in her car seat and eat her fingers during the ride home. "That was really fun, Mommy. Can we do that again soon?"

Of course we will, we have to check up on Joseph's bear.