Toronto Zoo

We went to the Toronto zoo for the first time in over three years. My mom is here visiting for Leif's baptism (because the Canadian border finally opened to US citizens!). We took all the kids to the zoo and had a fun, but hot, day. We started with the carousel. Natalie was very wary of it at first, but once it started going around and her animal started going up and down, she started giggling and loved it! She didn't want to get off, but I finally persuaded her that there were more fun things to do at the zoo.

We say lemurs and tigers,

tortoises and peacocks (while we were having lunch)

gorillas and lions,

and zebras.

Natalie got a really good view of most of the animals by riding on my shoulders or most often on her brothers' shoulders. She was most eager to see rhinos (which she calls dookie-ookies, after her stuffed animal rhino) and saw two different kinds of rhinos.

We saw hippos and giraffes,

and the animals that was the biggest show off- the polar bear.

He swam back and forth for quite awhile, then started doing back flips through the water off the side of his pool. We watched him do this for over 20 minutes, just diving over and over again. He was still at it when we finally left- I guess its a fun way to entertain himself, and everyone loved watching him.

Natalie also loves flamingos (because they are pink) and was happy to see some.

The boys decided to pretend to be sloths just for fun.

They enjoyed walking through a little bridge under a waterfall.

And loved stopping for treats while we waited our turn to go into the splash pad. We had beaver tails, which are basically flat churro type bread- one with cinnamon and sugar and the other with nutella. Since Trevor can't have any of those, I bought him a pink lemonade which was quickly commandeered by Natalie who was convinced it was hers because it was pink.

She was way past her nap time and likely to throw a huge tantrum, but luckily my mom had gotten another pink lemonade and we avoided a huge meltdown.

The kids loved playing at the splash pad and cooling off. We are planning to go back to the zoo again next week with Austin's dad (we got a yearly membership since that cost only a little bit more than a one time pass for everyone) .