Omaha Zoo Trip!

This morning while I was making the boys breakfast, I sorta spontaneously decided I was going to take them to the Omaha Zoo. Impressively, within 45 minutes of making this decision, we were out the door and already pounding the pavement towards Omaha. We spent a little over 2 hours there and it was a lot of fun. It was such a nice day so I didn't have to worry about hats and mittens. Actually, their winter coats were even a bit much. The first thing Nolan told me he wanted to do was go look at the fish. The aquarium was our first stop and we spent a good chunk of our time in there. It was really cool because in one of the fish aquariums they had a worker with all of his diving gear on so he could scrub out the tank. The boys and I were pretty fascinated watching him swim around in there with the fish. Nolan was especially fascinated with the sting rays and hammer-head sharks today.

We also went inside the Gorilla Pavilion and got to see a gorilla throw-up right in front of the window and then eat it....uggh. That was disguisting. It was pretty crazy in the Cat House too because the lions came right up to the window and just watched the boys. That's one of those moments were you wonder exactly how thick the glass is between you and the animals... Nolan and Carson just thought it was the coolest thing. Check out the pics...they were "poking" the lion's face.

Also went inside the Desert Dome but I don't exactly know how we missed the actual desert! We ended up going through something called "Kingdom's of the Night" or something like that and it was pretty creepy. It was completely dark and I had a hard time keeping my eye on the boys. There was also this big puddle looking spot in the middle of the pathway. It looked like a drop-off because you could see straight down it. Nolan said to me, "Mom, can I stand on there?" I put my hand on it because I thought it might be one of those illusion-type floors, but it was actually full of water. There was absolutely no barrier around this thing and it was smack-dab in the middle of the walkway! I thought, "What happens if kids run away from their parents and fall in this thing?" Oh, it freaked me out. I don't like the idea of walking around in the dark with scary animals lurking around the corner, and now basically death-drops as well. I tried to get us out of their as fast as I could. Nolan said to me, "Mom, there are no monsters down here." He was definitely reassuring himself that it was safe.



Nolan getting a ride from the sea turtle.




"Did you just see that?!" Carson at the pengiun exhibit.




Nolan was on the look-out for Tacky the Penguin! :)




In the bubble!




Nolan in awe of the aquarium. There was a shark swimming overhead.




The tank-cleaner.




Not exactly a dream job...Skin-tight spandax, your backside to the public, submerged in water with exotic fish...No thanks!




Nolan pointing out the baby gorilla.




Running through a tunnel in the Gorilla Pavilion.




Watching a monkey, who really looks like a skunk, eat lettuce.




Nolan watching the gorilla in the distance.





Gorilla in the middle!





They were both trying to walk on the snowbank.




Black Bears!





Love that look, Nolan.




I think this was in the Gorilla Pavilion again.




Face-to-face with the lions.




"Poke!"




"Poke!"




"Poke!"
Okay, I think the lion is getting a little annoyed with this.




"Listen, guys..."




Nolan demonstrating how to lay like a lion.




Of course Carson wants to get up too.