Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

We decided to extend our mini vacation to Crested Butte by heading to Colorado Springs instead of heading home on Sunday afternoon.  Our purpose for doing this was to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo on Monday as a family.  We checked into the hotel, which the girls were fascinated by, and headed to the pool.  We had fun splashing around and Cecilia showed Daddy all her new tricks that she's been learning in swim lessons.  We also ate at one of the restaurants in the hotel, and the girls did great!  

Now, remember how I told you that I got "Mother of the Year" award for not packing any cold weather clothes.  Ya, that award was granted to me a second time when we woke up to a cold drizzle/mist with no signs of sunlight.  I guess I can't complain too much, because I have been praying for a cool summer with lots of rain since I knew I would be pregnant all summer long.  Fortunately, we were in a large city with other attractions, and Walmart.  We found an indoor bounce house place for the girls to play and I ran to Walmart and purchased long pants and shirts for the girls, a long sleeve shirt for me, and ponchos for all.  We decided we weren't going to let the rain deter us from our original plan and headed to the zoo.  

This zoo was amazing.  I've been before, but I was probably Cecilia's age, and I don't really remember it.  (All I remember was walking up up up up up and watching a bus/tram thing go by and wondering why we couldn't ride up up up up up on it.)  The exhibits are beautiful, and it is built literally into the mountain.  The first stop were the giraffes, and lucky for us they were inside to stay out of the rain.  WOW!  I think this zoo is known for its giraffe exhibit.  You can feed them and pet them, and practically kiss them if you wanted too.  There was even a baby giraffe.  This was a favorite for all of us!

As we emerged from the giraffes the rain was stopping and it was warming up a touch.  It was great because many of the exhibits have an indoor or covered component to them, so we were only out in the elements when we were walking from one animal to the next.  We saw the elephants, and lions, and bears, and oh, the mountain lions were really cool too.  They had many other kid attractions, like an old plane, a play ground area, and petting zoo.  

 

Cecilia's favorite exhibit of the day was probably the otters.  She would have stayed there all day and night if we'd let her.  They were so active, and both of the girls liked to sit and look through the glass in the "cave".    

I'm so glad we made the trek down and braved the elements.  We had a wonderful time, and will definitely be going back!