Life with the Kristoff's: Mother’s Day Trip to Brookfield Zoo

I really enjoy going to the zoo as do the girls, so I thought it would be a perfect outing for Mother’s Day. We decided to go to Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and we had beautiful weather! Apparently a lot of families thought it was a good idea because it was super crowded, but we didn’t let the crowds bother us.
We left the house around 9 AM apparently that was a bit early for Sami…she fell asleep as soon as we hit the interstate!

We gave Sami the map and let her choose which animals to see first. I was SUPER laid back and let her be the leader all day. She loved it! We were all pretty bummed they didn’t have any elephants. Sad smile

They are redoing the pachyderm building, so hopefully next time we go they will have elephants. After exploring for a bit we decided to stop for lunch before the dolphin show.
We ate at this restaurant that reminds me of Quick Service restaurants at Disney World. It was SO crowded, but I managed to find a table. The girls and I staked our claim while Matt went an ordered. Shortly later he came over with our drinks, and returned to get our food. Meanwhile other families came…got food…and left!!!! I noticed most of them had pizza so I thought maybe what we had ordered took longer or something. After 5 families came and went and about 30 minutes had gone by since we had last seen Matt the girls and I went on a hunt for him. To be honest…I was afraid he was in zoo jail after freaking out on someone (neither one of us are “crowd people”) and Paul Blart had hauled him off! I was envisioning needing zoo dollars to bail him out… but have no fear… he was just STILL at the pick up counter waiting for our food! When I sat down he texted me that they had lost our order! Long story not so short… we spent almost 2 hours in there by the time we were done eating!!! Ugh… not the way I want to spend a day at the zoo, but what are you going to do??
Next we went to the dolphin show… waiting in line…

The dolphin show was so cute! It took you through all of the decades that Brookfield Zoo has been having dolphin shows. It was neat to see. Skylar loved it and kept yelling “Feeeeessshhhh” Smile

I would say the highlight of the day was petting stingrays. It was a first for all of us! We bought some food for them and fed them as well. It was a neat experience.

Next we made our way to the Family Play Zoo. It is very interactive and fun…both girls had a blast in here!
They have a craft room which is always a blast. Every time we’ve been there the staff has been ALL about open ended art. Sami made a bug using a microwave meal tray, toilet paper tube, piper cleaners, fabric scraps, etc. She raved the rest of the day about how fun it was to do her own project…which made me realize how little creative art has come home this year.

They had a little area that you can paint your own face. It was pretty crowded, so Sami asked me to just do her makeup. It was fun for us! Next we went and played animal hospital. Both girls had a lot of fun in that room.