A Tale of Two Zoos

Two weekends ago Kaitlyn says, 'I want to go to the zoo!' It's mid-day at this point on a beautiful sunny day so I know the zoo is packed (the only way I'll do the zoo is if we get there right as it opens). But we did want to get out of the house so I proposed a different kind of zoo...a trip to Petco.

Details:

• Cost: $0
• Animals seen: kittens, LOTS of fish, turtles, gerbils, rats, mice, ferrets, and birds (my favorite)
• Pros: Kaitlyn had fun checking out everything in the store and looking through all the cat accessories she thought we should get Peaches (the Mosers cat). I assured her Peaches didn't need the ultimate luxury litterbox penthouse.
• Cons: We almost walked away with a kitten. The look on KP's face when she was asking to take one of those little balls of fur home would melt anyone. We are soooo in trouble. It's just a matter of time before we have a dog or cat. *sigh* When Sheila asked her about a pet, she said, 'I'm working on it!'

Last weekend we went to the real zoo...Woodland Park Zoo. They have a dinosaur exhibit (KP LOVES dinosaurs) and it's ending Labor Day weekend so we thought we'd get her up there before then.

Details:

• Cost: Admission $70.50 (although we did buy a season pass); Carousel ride $2; Dinosaur exhibit $3/each; Dinosaur gift shop $15;  Parking $5.25 - crazy how it all adds up quickly!
• Animals seen: giraffes, gazelles, hippos, penguins, bears, gorillas, a wallaby, birds, jaguar, emus, and of course the dinosaurs (we sort of zig zagged through the zoo and missed entire sections as we let a three-year old lead the way. She was very insistent we give her the map and let her navigate. It was actually pretty cute!)
• Pros: It's always fun to get up to Seattle and the trip through Dick's burgers on the way home was really yummy! 
• Cons: Although Kaitlyn was somewhat interested she kept asking where the park was. Really??!! We could've taken her to a park and not have had to bring out the big wallet. And in fact, we hit a park on the way home and she was in heaven. I asked  her if going to the park was her favorite thing in the whole world. She thought for a second and said, 'No, birthday cake is then parks'. Alrighty then! The other con is that the dinosaur exhibit scared her a bit. We went through the first time and she didn't really know what to think. Later she asked if we could go through again. She kept talking to herself saying, 'I'm not going to be scared, I'm not' and sure enough the second time through was better!

On the second trip through she warmed up and was willing to take a picture

What three-year old wouldn't be a little scared by this guy?!