Emily had a couple of days off at the end of the month for the Christian teachers conference. At first we were just going to hang out around the house, but then at the last minute (like Thursday) we decided to make a quick trip up to Dayton to see Grandma and Grandpa. While we were changing plans anyway, we learned that there were Halloween events at the zoo on Saturday...and the weather was going to be amazing. So, we drove up to Dayton Friday night (ate Marion's pizza and Graeter's) and got up early Saturday morning to drive to the zoo.
All Emily talked about seeing was the river otter. She has talked and talked about that river otter ever since we first met him two years ago when we visited the zoo with Grandpa Marshall. She loves that otter. Before we got to the otter though, we saw the elephants and watched one get a bath and fed the giraffes. We also saw the baby giraffes which were super cute.
On our way to the otter, we were able to meet a new friend, Gizmo, a super cute little owl. Emily was pretty smitten with him and we also rode the train around the zoo. Emily loved seeing the swans on the pond (since we just finished reading Trumpet of the Swan).
We visited many other animals too, but I'm not sure Emily really saw any of them because she just kept asking to get to the otter. So, that's what we did. We skipped the rest of the exhibits on the way and just went straight to the otters. Gratefully, they were just as playful with her this time as last time, though there were a lot more guests at the exhibit this time so she had to share.
After visiting the otter, she deemed it acceptable to visit some other animals. We learned that they would be giving pumpkins to the black bear and the polar bear just before lunch so we made that our next stop. That turned out to be a good choice. The polar bear was the most fun. They dropped the pumpkin into the pool in his den and at first he wanted no part of getting in to get it. But finally, he gave in and went in after it. Super cute and everyone cheered.
We also visited the petting zoo and a little goat kind of fell in love with Emily. She petted them all for quite a while before also spending some time on the little playground.
Continuing the otter theme, we visited the carousel for a quick ride...on the otter. Then we saw the 4D movie (about sea creatures) and got HUGE bag of popcorn. We saw the big cats, the rhino, some hippos, the mantee, flamingos, another owl and more.
