Spencer's first visit to the "big zoo."

Sioux Falls has a pretty... decent zoo, for the most part.  They're undergoing renovations again this year which will make it a little more awesome, I think.  Spencer has been there at least three times... possibly five or six.  I cannot remember exactly.  He enjoyed it when we went, for the most part, but he was a bit younger then and didn't really understand animals or have that much interest in them at the time.  Also, sometimes the animals in the zoo in Sioux Falls seem hard to see.   That's my opinion, anyway.  They have a pretty good variety, but it's not nearly as awesome a zoo as the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, NE.

Ever since Spencer started showing interest in fish (which he calls "wish!" very excitedly), I have had it in my heart and mind to take him to the zoo in Omaha, because they have a wonderful aquarium with an underwater tunnel.  I just always thought he would love it.

Spencer's fantastic daddy made it possible for the three of us to take a day trip to Omaha this past Sunday to visit the zoo.  While the temperatures climbed to over 100° that day, we left early enough to be able to spend a good five or more hours wandering the zoo.  We, by no means, saw it all, but it was our plan to attempt to see all of the animals out of one of Spencer's favorite books, "Where's Spot?" as well as the aquarium.

We accomplished that much, plus a few animals he hadn't heard of yet and a few others he had from different books he has.  He is 20.5 months old now and he knows quite a few animal names and noises, which made the adventure even more exciting, I think.  We definitely got to put his knowledge to the test!  He did so well!  And was so excited!

We first visited the desert dome.  We decided to start there while the temperature outside was only in the 80s and so it wasn't going to bake us. Spencer really liked the foxes, the jack rabbits, porcupines, and a few other animals that I can't remember.  He got really excited with the rabbits, and an elderly lady next to us just loved watching him squeak at them.   After, we went to the... night.... area... where the animals that love the dark are.  Spencer honestly loved watching the bats in the bat cave flying around overhead.  He would say "flap flap" as they flew.  He also got very excited about the snakes and frogs and made their noises for quite some time.   Then, we visited the swamp lands, and he got to see turtles and alligators, both in his book.

Then, I think, we went and saw the gorillas and monkeys.  Spencer was enjoying the monkeys from inside the pavilion area, where we were about three stories above ground, until we pointed out a monkey on the ground for him to look at, and we think he was afraid he was going to fall down there (because the glass was clear), and he started to get a little freaked out.  He enjoyed it again when we were on the main level with various other primates and the big gorillas.  I got to stare a gorilla in the face with only glass between us.  It was pretty intense.  He made a lot of monkey noises the entire time.

I think we then went through the aviary, but there weren't many birds hanging out.  We saw a few and a deer of some sort.

We stopped for a rest and snack, where there were little wild birds waiting for Spencer to drop his goldfish crackers.  He liked them.  Haha.  Then we saw the bears!  He really enjoyed watching the polar bear swim from atop daddy's shoulders.  He enjoyed the grizzly and sunbear, too, but I think the polar seemed to be his favorite.  He growled for the bears.

Then we went to the cat pavilion area.  Spencer watched the big tiger pace for a while, and roared.   He saw a few lions, panthers, jaguars, and a leopard, too.  



The last stop (I think) that we made was the aquarium, because it was getting to be to the point where Spencer was getting potentially whiny and needing to sleep (we woke him at 6 and he only slept 20 minutes out of the entire 3 hour drive to the zoo).   It was the part, as I said, I was most anticipating for him.  When we walked inside, I got the video camera out, and Jake put him down to run free.  He ran excitedly toward the first tank inside which had a bunch of fish (I don't remember what they were), yelling "wish! wish! wish!" the entire time.  He kept pointing and squeaking and running and LOVED it.  Here's the video: 

We took him to penguin area next.  He watched from right up against the glass for a bit, with daddy, until a penguin zipped by him in the water and made him jump. I didn't get to see it, but Jake and various other spectators did, and commented on it quite a bit.  He warmed up to watching them shortly after, and was mesmerized by their swimming.

Then, we took him to the underwater tunnel.  He sat atop daddy's shoulders again, fascinated with fish swimming overhead.  After a bit, we set him down right at the glass, and he watched more "wish" swimming, until a sting ray swam by his face and made him cry.   Then he wanted to be held, so I held him, and we watched sharks and others swim by us.  It was wonderful!

The final thing that we took time to see (other than a few other types of ocean fish) were the jellyfish.  Spencer was mesmerized by these as well.  The orange ones (again, I forget what they're called) were his favorite.  We stood right up against the glass and watched them swim in front of us.  He kept reaching out to the glass to "touch" them and saying "wow!"

By the time we got out of the aquarium, he was basically asleep.  :)

Because we didn't see it all (we missed out on many safari animals (like elephants, zebra, giraffe, rhinoceros) and rain forest type animals (macaws and such)), we decided that sometime, probably next spring when Spencer's brother or sister is a little older, we would go back and see more.

It was definitely worth the trip, I think.  We didn't have our camera with, but had our video camera, cell phones, and my sisters point and shoot, so we did get a few photos and videos to share with Spencer when he's older.