Zoo fun - Part One

I don't know if my mass audience is aware, we have a little gem here in Omaha - the Zoo. I've browsed polls that say it's second or third in the country for best most kick ass zoo. It has the world's largest indoor rainforest. They also have the worlds largest aviary to the public, one of the largest aquariums and gorilla exhibits. Every single exhibit is like nothing you've ever seen before, brilliantly planned for animals to cohabitate in an assimilated environment. If possible, you never see a fence. As a scrapbooking mom, the money shots for the scrapbooks are incredible! Seriously, y'all - I heart our zoo.

We've had a membership since we moved here. I keep waiting for my kids to get sick of the zoo so I can continue to force it on them with very maternal comments like, "You kids don't know how good you've got it here at this zoo. When I was a kid, the zoo was a puppy mill." In the summer, we pack a lunch and go there at least once a week. Sometimes, it's like lunch in a park with animals as far as they are concerned. Still, we love the zoo. And we go a lot. And they still love it, so I will continue to use it as one of my best mommy resources.

This year, I signed them up for a few day camps. Then I noticed that they are old enough for a campout in the aquarium. A night in the aquarium, all to ourselves? Once I realized I could take the kids while Ricardo was at his ManWeekend, I was sold. It'll be a great deterrant, and mommmy will be the coolest mommy in all the land. Let's effn do this!

The week before our campout, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of part of the zoo, one being the aquarium, from one of my students who works there. It was extremely eye-opening of the animals that aren't in exhibits. We got to go down into the basement of the aquarium and learn all about the water reserve and stuff, we round a corner and I see my kids running toward a glass window with the biggest snake I've ever seen. In my head I yelled, "SHIT!" but I'm guessing outloud it translated to something very responsible like "YIKES!" Then I flinched and ran the other way, leaving my children for bait. Apparently, Monty, the python, is an 18 foot, 200 pound snake that is an aggressive eater. His buddy, MacNCheese, an albino python only slightly smaller hasn't been eating his rats well. So, they took them both off exhibit, and keep them in the basement of the aquarium. Interesting to the commoners of the world. However, I'll be sleeping above these eating-disordered snakes in a week. Super. Thankfully, my kids are pretty skinny, and I'm guessing a snake of this size would need a more meaty kid.

After we toured the basement, we went above the giant water tanks. And, it was shark feeding time. We never get to the aquarium at feeding time on a regular day, and here we are, above the tunnel, fins violently swishing in the water, with zoo keepers standing at the tanks with fish on a pole feeding them. So exciting! It was so hands-on in fact - Lucy got a little too close to the edge, it made me a little nervous. A shark swam by assessed, again that my kids are too skinny, and then swam over to the fish on the pole instead. Sting rays are going by, the sea turtle named Bubbles waddles by. It's absolutely incredible to see it all at this angle.

And that's when Max comes running over to me and says, "MOMMY LOOK! PEOPLE!" All this crazy fascinating behind the scenes stuff to look at and see, and Max sees the people going through the tunnel below us. Can't wait to see what the campout excitement is all about.

That's how I roll.