Monkeying Around on Monkey Mountain

We had an extremely fun day at the New Orleans Audubon Zoo with our friends, the Maggios girls, May 23.

My good friend Jennifer, her daughter Lilly (Madalynn's age/friend), and her youngest daughter Caroline (Jillian's age/friend) took a trip across the lake (Ponchatrain) via the Causeway and got to the zoo around 10:45 a.m.

We spent the morning checking out the animals, chatting, and taking pictures of our cute kids, of course! Highlights were seeing the elephants up close, one "waving" at us with one of his ears every time Jennifer raised her hand and said, "hi." We probably spent at least 30-45 minutes in the petting zoo area. Madalynn, Lilly, Justis and Caroline especially liked combing the sheep and goats. Jillian and Dawson put on Zookeeper shirts in the play area after they bored of combing goats.
We finished off the morning with a spin on the carousel. Jillian and Caroline did NOT want to get off when the carousel stopped! Then again, who wants to get off of a carousel when the ride is over?!

We miserly moms bypassed the expensive food served at the zoo by packing coolers with lunch. We found two huge oaks on the lawn in front of the zoo and had a nice picnic in the shade. We had all kinds of food, but one thing was evident. The kids all share a love of COOL RANCH DORITOS!! Justis, Madalynn and Lilly climbed the live oak branches near the ground and bounced up and down on them, laughing and laughing. We then packed up our picnic and went back into the zoo for the afternoon.

You can see by the pictures I posted that the day was a hot and steamy one. We sought refuge from the sun, humidity and heat several ways. Water misters and fans are available all around the zoo to cool visitors off. The kids lingered in the misters and fans every time we came to one.

The longer the afternoon went, the less important seeing the animals became! Our priority was cooling off. We sat for about an hour in the shade of the Mayan exhibit, allowing the kids to dig in a huge sandbox to uncover "artifacts" permanently buried and re-covered each day for a fresh digging opportunity.

We concluded the day with the kids' most anticipated zoo "exhibit," Monkey Mountain. Monkey mountain is a huge hill in the center of the zoo with paths and boardwalks hidden in the trees and waterfalls that trickle down from the top with pools for the kids to play in. Jennifer and I decided a trip to Monkey Mountain would be worth a trip to the zoo in itself! Jillian and Caroline even got wet and climbed the pools of the waterfall with Jennifer and I.

I looked at cell phone and it was 3:45! We had spent almost all day at the zoo. Time flies with good friends! We decided to call it a day, dried off and passed by the sea lion exhibit (which just recently reopened) on the way out.

We hugged and parted ways to take different routes home. Jillian and Dawson were sleeping 1 block after the van pulled out of the parking lot. I was SOOOO thirsty that I actually went to Burger king and spent $8 on cold, bottled water. So much for being a miserly mom. Note to self: Pack water next time! I had a cooler full of Capri Sun and Pepsi, but all the water we brought was gone. We got home after Travis did that evening and the kids were out by 7:00!