Southwick Zoo

To celebrate both the Summer-like weather and the long weekend, we went to Southwick Zoo today. We had a great time. Keagan and Erik went on the "sky ride" for the first time now that Keagan is tall enough. It's a ski chair lift that goes around a portion of the park. The boys went on all the kiddie rides they have, and there was one operator who was a total hoot! He had a crazy hairdo that was white and short and spiked at the top, coming through his visor, and then a bright white beard down nearly to his belly button. Keagan _loved_ him and they were playing a game where every time Keagan came around in the ride he would pretend to lasso the guy (an idea from their rodeo horse ride) and he would scream. The boys were in hysterics. Every now and again too, he would laugh and let out a "ho ho ho" and then "Correct" himself and pretend like he didn't. It was so entertaining. What a great person to be operating kiddie rides.
We also so their performing dogs show. The boys loved that. They even had an Eskie!! Not as pretty as Willow, of course, but we all loved seeing the eskie perform. Another highlight is their train ride through the woods. We saw a beautiful great blue heron take off from the water. That was amazing. We didn't get much of a glimpse of the white elk, but up close and personal with some wild turkeys!
Torin loved seeing the white and orange Bengal tigers. He kept asking for tigers in all different colors. He also loved the rhino (who was just laying in the sun) and the tiny munjac deer. So cute!
Torin was definitely tired by the end, but we made it through the whole day without any meltdowns. All around success!