The Brickers: Wild animals. Literally. Not just a figure of speech this time.

I took another trip with the kids up to Minneapolis this past weekend. Lauren had been begging to go to the zoo since the beginning of the summer and since Labor Day had passed and school had officially started I figured I better hurry up and do it or the zoos would close for the year. We headed up on Thursday after Josh got out of school and I hadn't even gotten out of our neighborhood before I realized it was going to be a long trip.

I literally went hoarse from all the yelling on the car ride up. Like....threatened to turn the car around at Charles City and honestly meant it. It was bad. Like....it's gonna be awhile before I do that again, bad.

But for as bad as they were on Thursday, we had an absolute blast at the Como Zoo and Conservatory on Friday. This zoo is the perfect size for people with small children. So many times you take kids to the zoo and they are so large that you can't possibly get to see every animal because it is just TOO BIG! And the best part....it cost us $5 for all of us to get in. I know, right?!?

I even packed us lunch and we had a picnic right next to the seals. We honestly just had the greatest time!

We went into the Primate Exhibit and I had Ella sitting in the stroller as Josh, Lauren and I were focusing on one monkey in particular. All of a sudden I heard Ella scream because an chimp had taken interest in her and sat right in front of her, staring at her while eating his/her lettuce. I hate to laugh at a child's terror...but it was hysterical!

We were looking at the lions and tigers when a zoo keeper came out and told us it was feeding time. We went and got a better view of the lions and the kids loved how the lioness got to the food before the lion. ;-)