Left the Zoo Behind & Went to the Zoo!

I took a day off from work on Thursday and the family headed off to the Brookfield Zoo. This was Caleb’s first trip to the zoo, and it couldn’t have been a better day! The thunderstorms on Wednesday night seemed to have discouraged people from going to the zoo on Thursday. We parked in the front spot and headed right in. Our first stop was the Sting Ray exhibit. We all had a chance to touch the sting rays as they seemingly flew by us under the water. Kaitlyn was frightened at first, but quickly grew brave when she thought her brother would touch them first. Shortly after that exhibit, we found ourselves at the dolphin show. This is always a treat. Both Kaitlyn and Caleb loved it. Leaving the dolphins, everyone agreed that it was time to eat. We found a shady spot next to the café and started enjoying our packed lunch when suddenly the sky grew dark and we felt a couple of discouraging drops of rain. We quickly ducked into the café and watched all of the patrons scurry about as the rain came pouring down and the lighting crackle across the sky. Everyone fled to their cars. After 15mins. The clouds disappeared and we enjoyed a sunny cool front that moved in, and an even emptier park. We ended the day by enjoying the children’s zoo, the family zoo adventure, the penguins, and the wolves. We missed the gorillas, and all of Africa. This gives a great excuse to head back very soon.

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Caution! This post is not suitable for the Lactose Intolerant!

Well, there we were Saturday morning getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. Missy brought up the idea of going to Fair Oaks Farm. What a great idea, I thought. Fair Oaks is one of the largest dairy's in the country. Four million glasses of milk are produced by their 30,000 cows, everyday! This dairy created a venue where people could not only learn about the dairy industry, but experience it first hand.

We learned so much! We saw the milking carousel which holds 72 cows at a time. It was pretty neat how the cows learn to get on and off the carousel. I called it the "Cow-Go-Round." The cows wear a collar that lets the carousel know which cow is being milked, how much milk she produces, and how many steps she took since her last milking. Pretty cool stuff!

We also learned that the dairy is able to use everything the cow produces, including the poo. The entire complex is powered by the methane produced from the moo poo! Forget ComEd, they have CowEd!

It was very amazing to learn that the cows on the farm give birth to about 80 calf's everyday! They had a very cool maternity/nursery barn. Out front of the barn was a traffic signal that alerted visitors of baby calf being born. If the light was red, nothing was happening. If the light was yellow, there were hoofs visible. If the light was green, the calf's nose was showing, and that meant the baby cow would soon be born. They had a real neat observatory where we watched one of the babies being born. Kaitlyn was adorable as she softly coached the mommy cow, by saying things like "you can do it", "your almost there, just a little more." She is such a girl!

We ended our adventure with some homemade ice cream in the Fair Oaks Gift Shop. It was a great end to a great day!

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Summer is certainly here! With the summer sun turning up the heat, Kaitlyn has a blast cooling off. An early birthday present from Grandpa and grandma has Kaitlyn praying an bedtime for hot weather the next day. She climbs up this monstrosity from every angle. As she starts down the slide she catches some serious air on the first bump in the slide and lands in the pool of cold water at the bottom. Missy and I have so much fun just watching her. Caleb seem to look on with a twinkle of jealousy in his eye. This Slide will be a fun addition to Kaitlyn's 4 th Birthday Party next Saturday, July 14th. Come enjoy the fun.