Scott and I have been attempting to have family fun days once a month, where the day is all about the kids. Not going out to dinner with them, or grocery shopping or visiting relatives. We do that regularly but instead having one day dedicated to something they might find fun. It was my decision this month that we should go to the Aldergrove Zoo. Gabe loves animals and I thought it would be neat to see his reaction to all the different kinds. But I should know by now that my son never does exactly what you would expect him to do.
The first indication that our trip may not go exactly as planned was seen in the first five minutes. The ticket booth for the parking was inside the zoo entrance and after paying for our ticket we couldn't seem to pry Gabe's attention from the machine.
Clearly this trip would take multiple hours if we had to keep grabbing Gabe from inanimate objects. So they have these tandem bike cars at the gift shop that could be rented for 15 dollars an hour! Perfect! Now we could see the whole park without it taking forever and a day. So Scott and I pedaled, with Gabe in the seat up front and Eden strapped to me by backpack. We got to the first pen, which had these HUGE camels and we got out to show Gabe. He took one glance at them then noticed a donkey in the pen next to the camels and found this much more interesting. Alright....I never dictated which animals i thought he should be interested in. His interest in the donkey subsided just as quick and within 30 seconds he was back at the bike, investigating the tires, the seat, the lights. He spent five minutes talking to the bike, laughing at the bike, talking to us about the bike. It was cute...but we just spent 40 dollars to see the animals! Well we got back on the coolest machine Gabe had ever had the pleasure of riding and saw rhinos, capybaras, flamingos, lions, a tiger. With almost every animal we visited we found Gabe wandering back to the bike to explore it a little more thoroughly.
The first indication that our trip may not go exactly as planned was seen in the first five minutes. The ticket booth for the parking was inside the zoo entrance and after paying for our ticket we couldn't seem to pry Gabe's attention from the machine.
Clearly this trip would take multiple hours if we had to keep grabbing Gabe from inanimate objects. So they have these tandem bike cars at the gift shop that could be rented for 15 dollars an hour! Perfect! Now we could see the whole park without it taking forever and a day. So Scott and I pedaled, with Gabe in the seat up front and Eden strapped to me by backpack. We got to the first pen, which had these HUGE camels and we got out to show Gabe. He took one glance at them then noticed a donkey in the pen next to the camels and found this much more interesting. Alright....I never dictated which animals i thought he should be interested in. His interest in the donkey subsided just as quick and within 30 seconds he was back at the bike, investigating the tires, the seat, the lights. He spent five minutes talking to the bike, laughing at the bike, talking to us about the bike. It was cute...but we just spent 40 dollars to see the animals! Well we got back on the coolest machine Gabe had ever had the pleasure of riding and saw rhinos, capybaras, flamingos, lions, a tiger. With almost every animal we visited we found Gabe wandering back to the bike to explore it a little more thoroughly.
The only pen we stopped at where Gabe spent more time looking at the animals inside instead of the bike parked next to them was the one with the ducks...For some reason he really loves birds. He also loved how close he could get to the peacocks without them taking off. Of course me, the ever vigilant mother was driving Scott nuts with how many times I said "make sure he doesn't get his fingers too close". Typical mom always jumping in with warnings and dire predictions, and a typical dad who would let the child explore every little crevice, short of the pens with the man eating animals.
We finally got around the whole park with a few more reminders that little kids don't need a lot of money spent on them to have fun. As we were leaving, Gabe once again became enthralled by the ticket dispenser...I'm thinking our next trip should have something to do with machines.
No comments:
Post a Comment