Caden's in town

This past week, my nephew Caden came to town to visit with my dad and step-mom. I love all my nieces and nephews (I have quite a few and they are by far an exceptional group of kids!), but I have had a real blast spending time with Caden whom I rarely see because he lives in Missouri. Well, this week I got the chance to make up for that. Monday, we all went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Then on Tuesday and again today we went to the Brookfield Zoo. It was a blast. All three kids had a marvelous time and Dad, Josie and I had a blast, too!

This summer seems to be my summer for the zoo, too, as I'm planning to go again (to Lincoln Park Zoo) on Monday with my sister-in-law, Elaine and her family and then again in August with the whole Bannon clan at the Milwaukee Zoo. It's good family fun and a great place for pictures. Speaking of which . . .

First stop: the lions. This is as active as the king of the jungle got during our visit. All three of the kids were a little non-plussed having expected a roar or at least some pacing.

Caden bravely got up on the fence by the lion's area and gave a growl for the camera.





After the staid behavior of the jungle animals, we went up to visit the seals and walruses. Faye actually said, "Whoa!" when she saw the seal pop up out of the water. She was quite impressed!


Faye poses with the walrus statue. She found it quite interesting as it has whiskers on it's lip just like her daddy. She patted it's head and giggled!








Lenny and Grandpa take a moment to pose just outside Pinniped Point (where the seals and walruses were).





Next we headed over to the children's part of the zoo where the kids got the chance to chase some geese and pet some goats. Why no pictures of petting the goats, you ask? Two reasons - one, we were busy trying to prevent the babies from tormenting the goats by pulling tails, ears, fur, etc. Two, we were really, really busy keeping the babies away from the copious amounts of goat droppings that seemed to be pouring out of every goat in the pen. Gross!!!!

Well, after that we headed off to the cleaner, if insanely hotter, Dolphin show. Honestly, Tuesday was hot, in the nineties with humidity off the charts, but being outside was so much nicer after we spent half an hour in the sauna that was the Dolphin show.

Here the trainers are with their charges. They were the happiest folks there because they got to dive into the water.



One happy dolphin hops up on the edge of the tank.




Group shot of some sweaty, mostly happy zoo patrons.





Faye tries to convince her grandpa to make a run for it.









Caden and grandpa hang out by the bears later on.







Caden says cheese while the polar bear cub frolics in the background.









Finally we decided to go for a tram ride around the rest of the park. The kids got to see a camel . . .



. . . some zebras . . .





. . . some giraffes . . .







. . . and some bison. It was wonderful, both days!!!!