Winter Wildland at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!
Monday, December 14, 2009 by Amy
We all got bundled up last night and headed to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for their Winter Wildland light display. Luckily, we're members! I was, for once, not cold! I know, a shocker! Perhaps it's because I was wearing tights, leggings, with pants (obviously) on top, two pairs of socks, a shirt, sweater, two-layer jacket, gloves, scarf, and a hat. It was nice not to be cold :) The girls were similarly bundled. Rudi pissed and moaned about not having a scarf because "someone" won't knit him one. I am planning on making hims a fleece scarf with some sort of applique on it for Christmas, but darn, I wish he would stop complaining so I don't spill the beans!
Of course, we had to feed the giraffes, which were in the giraffe house rather than in the yard. The giraffes are quite aggressive in there if you have a giraffe cracker, because they're very little room for you to get away from them! Avery was quite scared, terrified even, but calmed down once I let her know that she is too short for the giraffes to reach. Riley only got scared when one giraffe cornered us and forced us to give up one of our crackers. Ah, the best part of the zoo!
I have to say, getting "rid" of Santa as a real person has been one of the best things I've ever done. We now freely pretend about Santa, having a lot of fun with it, without the pressure of it being real, or the lying. The kids adored seeing Santa at the zoo (and he was a good Santa, too!). They did a lion treat feeding while we were there that was fun to watch. Basically they dropped in stocking-shaped meat-filled giraffe pee-scented pinatas into the enclosure and we got to watch as all the lions jumped for them. Cool.
Jack Frost was also at the zoo and I couldn't get a good picture of him. His beard was blue with icicles and his robe and pants had lights all over and a big furry tophat. Pretty neat. He looked a lot like Johnny Depp playing the Mad Hatter or something like that. Just a tad creepy, but still really cool.
Oddly enough, Avery was not scared of Santa, but was quite terrified of Mrs. Claus. Go figure!
Of course, we had to feed the giraffes, which were in the giraffe house rather than in the yard. The giraffes are quite aggressive in there if you have a giraffe cracker, because they're very little room for you to get away from them! Avery was quite scared, terrified even, but calmed down once I let her know that she is too short for the giraffes to reach. Riley only got scared when one giraffe cornered us and forced us to give up one of our crackers. Ah, the best part of the zoo!
I have to say, getting "rid" of Santa as a real person has been one of the best things I've ever done. We now freely pretend about Santa, having a lot of fun with it, without the pressure of it being real, or the lying. The kids adored seeing Santa at the zoo (and he was a good Santa, too!). They did a lion treat feeding while we were there that was fun to watch. Basically they dropped in stocking-shaped meat-filled giraffe pee-scented pinatas into the enclosure and we got to watch as all the lions jumped for them. Cool.Jack Frost was also at the zoo and I couldn't get a good picture of him. His beard was blue with icicles and his robe and pants had lights all over and a big furry tophat. Pretty neat. He looked a lot like Johnny Depp playing the Mad Hatter or something like that. Just a tad creepy, but still really cool.
Oddly enough, Avery was not scared of Santa, but was quite terrified of Mrs. Claus. Go figure!
