Sunday morning, we headed to the zoo for Santa's Safari. We'd originally signed up for the previous weekend, but it was cancelled because of snow/ice. We didn't really know what to expect, but it was a really great program! A really big program, too--there was a big room full of tables/chairs, and I'd guess there were 100 people in our session (and they had 3 sessions/day on both Saturday and Sunday).
We started off with coloring and crafting (we made a foam owl ornament for our tree).
And enjoyed delicious and gigantic snowman cookies.
Lewis wasn't/isn't much for sitting still for long, so he roamed the room and found some friends:
The penguin!
The train!
He spent most of his time looking at the village and train (that wasn't running!). Kevin said he kept asking him to turn on the train. It must have been broken. :/
The snowman!
He kept kind of sneaking up on the penguin and snowman, and I don't think their sight lines let them look at what is directly below them. Lewis ended up kind of goosing them in the butt a few times and just kept going back for more.
Singing Christmas songs
I can't remember what we sang beyond Jingle Bells, but Lewis was right up in there, singing along.
And finally, Santa!
Again, they gave us a free picture right away which was a nice souvenir from our day. I did hear him say that he wanted a 'Big Tractor' this time. :)
After seeing Santa, we headed out on the safari part. There were ten stations set-up within three buildings (since it was pretty chilly outside), and each had an animal to pet and learn about. Lewis was okay with all of them except for the Sulfur-crested Cockatoo because it was squawking REALLY loudly, and Lewis turned around on the verge of tears and walked quickly out of the room. :( I didn't blame him, poor buddy. Birds can be scary.
Here are the animals he did see and touch and learn about:
A (dead) brown bat
Bearded Dragon
Python
Ferret
Hedgehog
Rabbit
Also at the rabbit station were some pelts--he's petting a skunk (duh), and that's a beaver next to it.
Also included in the ticket price was a pass for the 4-D theater to see a condensed/13-minute version of The Polar Express, which we've never seen:
Looking rad, dudes. :)
I've never been to the 4-D theater and didn't really know what that extra 'D' was. In case others are wondering, beyond the 3-D effects, our seats rattled as the train went barreling down the tracks, the theater smelled like hot chocolate when the kids were drinking cocoa, and we got sprayed in the face with water as the train skidded across the ice, plus a few other effects. It was tooooo cool! I just kept saying 'wow,' and I know Lewis thought it was awesome, too. He wouldn't stop talking about it all day: 'Train go in water, Mommy.' :)
Afterward, we came home for lunch an attempt at a nap, which has become more of a consistent thing as of late! Keep it up, Lew! Wouldn't you know he slept for over TWO hours on a day when we actually had somewhere else to be (Kevin's family Christmas party). :) Kevin went ahead without us, and Lew and I followed about an hour and a half later once he woke up, quite refreshed. :) I didn't get any pictures from the party, but we had a good time, good food, and a funny gift exchange.
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