The Topeka Zoo

Over our Christmas break we Siegs enjoyed visiting the Topeka zoo a time or two. As much as we like our own little zoo here in town, it was fun to see a slightly bigger one with even more animals. We love it and we would recommend it to anyone. I also would recommend bring some sort of wheeled toy along for a VIP experience because the animals at this zoo can't get enough of them!

We found out about this because Coobie couldn't bare to take a tour of the zoo without his beloved John Deer tractor we didn't really think much of it until we rolled up to the lion area. As we watched little Coobie truck along, we noticed that the group of lions basking in the sun were also taking interest in our littlest man. As he got closer to their enclosure they started stalking him until he rolled up to the glass window and they pounced! It was seriously frightening! But as soon as the shock wore off, we got a real kick out of the lions attention!

 I have never seen a lion this close before and I was BLOWN AWAY by their size and power! They were HUGE! James and I were a little rattled but the but McCabe didn't even miss a beat.

 Look at that!

 This trip made up for the other five hundred other errands and adventures McCabe insisted bringing this heavy tractor on.

While we were in lion land, the boys decided to tame some more beasts:

Note the intense ropping that is going on in Char's picture. McCabe insists on bringing some sort of vehicle everywhere we go and Charpy totes his "cowboy ropes."

After the lions, we visited their smaller cousin the cougar and Coobie got similar results, except this time it was his cute little cheeks that put this cat on the prowl: 

I'm going to be picturing this sight next time I go hiking with out little men. Yikes!!!

 How can you not like a zoo that has hippos?!!!

Getting a sip-a-roonie 

 A hippo skull.

 We are particularly fond of the rainforest building that is full of all sorts of new friends to find:

 The cool thing about the rainforest area is that almost all of the animals are roaming free inside. As you thaw from the bitter cold outside, you get to hunt around the leaves and trees for all sorts of cool animals.

 They had large fruit bats roosting on the ceiling that may have made our biggest little man's day!

Coobie is quite sure that nobody is as cool as his cowboy older brother:

L: Mason, blending in with a bear statue. R: Poppy helping Cabey zoom along on his tractor wheels.

 Mason was delighted to see a real live elephant. It wasn't until then that I realized that he hadn't seen one since he was a baby! Oops.

 The boys thought that this orangatang under his Scooby-Doo sheet was hilarious  Well, except for Coobie who thought he was a ghost.

As we were about to leave, we noticed that there were people on the "ice rink" that the zoo advertised was open free to the zoo's patrons. We had been interested in taking a whirl on the rink earlier but then we saw that there was no ice and figured that it was closed until cooler weather. However, when we asked the skaters if it was open, they informed us that it was some sort of vinyl rink that worked just like a regular ice rink without the ice. Hot dog! The men all laced up for their Wintery treat....

 ....only to find that the plastic rink was impossible to move on without slipping! I asked a guy working at the zoo if anyone had been successful at actually skating on it and he said that he hadn't seen anyone really be able to. We felt sorta bad for the zoo got bamboozled but our boys enjoyed it all the same.