Preston had a meeting for work in Albuquerque. They were providing a room & we've been wanting to go see the Albuquerque zoo so we tagged along. We decided to wait until after church to leave so we didn't leave until 3pm. When we got to Albuquerque the first thing we did was stop for gas since we were getting very low. A kind stranger pointed out that we had a flat so with it being 8p on Sunday we had to put the spare on and wait to get it fixed until the next morning. Thank goodness my sister was also going to the same meeting so she could watch the boys while we changed the tire, it was a cool evening, we found out before anything bad happened & we weren't on the side of the freeway with these 4 boys.
The boys ran in the grass...they had been in the vehicle 4 hours and were ready to get some energy out! Aydon was being a monkey!
I had planned to meet Preston's cousin at the zoo & do some other fun things but as our luck was going, her daughter broke her arm and they were at the hospital and were unable to meet us at the zoo. Preston was worried about me taking the boys to the zoo by myself. I would pick taking the boys to the zoo over going to the grocery store by myself with all 4 any day! That's something they want to do & were very good for me! We took pictures of our favorites for Dad to see and thought we'd share a few.
They had a neat exhibit for the Seals & Sea Lions. It was almost as nice as a Sea World set up. I was very impressed. They were barking and climbing up on rocks for us so we enjoyed it!
I liked this picture!
We had planned to be at the zoo as soon as they opened before it got too hot but with being up late & having to get the flat fixed we were there right in the middle of the day. It was definitely a warm one. Aydon was the only one that took advantage of the splash area though even though I tried to tell them all to cool off.
A shot of the boys in front of the Zebras. Aydon was excited because they had 2 baby zebras. One was so young that he still had brown stripes still. (They start out as brown and turn black as they get older) Aydon read a sign that you could "adopt" an animal by paying $25 to help feed them & Aydon wanted to adopt the zebras!
They had 2 huge rhinos that we really liked.
I liked the 3 big hippos even though they never moved for us.
They had Bactrian camels. They have 2 humps. Dromedary camels only have 1 hump. As Aydon explained you can remember this because a Bactrian has 2 humps like a "B" & the Dromedary has 1 hump like a "D".
Zach was the one that was looking forward to seeing the elephants and of course they were at the very back part of the zoo so you have to get through all the other animals first. Zach whined about seeing the elephant and when we finally got there he whined the rest of the trip about wanting to ride the elephant. It was definitely nap time by the time we were done and he did fall asleep immediately.
They had 2 mountainl lions and both were sitting right in the windows for us to get a good look at. This one was pacing & Ty was wondering why. No clue son! Ask Aydon...he knows everything about animals!
This was the animal that Ty was most excited to see.
The polar bear was another one who was very active and fun to watch. He had been in the lower area and then climbed up to this upper pool.
He slowly swam around the edge and then kept laying his head on the waterfall. He also laid on his back and the kids loved that.
We went to watch him play in the windows below and it was fun to watch him swim underwater.
Taking a quick water break in the shade.
Aydon loved that they had 2 bald eagles.
We all loved seeing the 2 huge crocodiles. We were bummed that the gators were not in their exhibit but the size of the crocodiles made up for it! The boys wanted to get close but you could only look at them from way up high.
I loved going through the zoo with Aydon because he wouldn't even look at half the signs and could tell me what the animal was & it was mind boggling all the information he knew about so many animals. For example:
we were going through the snakes and he saw a red mamba & he told me that it would spit venom into the eyes of it's attackers. I read the sign and that's exactly what it said. I asked how he knew and he said he saw it one of the Swamp shows he watches.
I highly recommend this zoo! We've been to many zoos & Phoenix has always been our favorite but I think this one may top my list now. I was super excited about the price $7 for adults & in the summer on Mondays one adult can bring up to 4 children in for free! Definitely the cheapest zoo & probably one of the best!
