Real Fan Days at the zoo

The weather in Chicago for the last week has been absolutely amazing. The highs have been in the 70s or low 80s--quite cool for August but spectacular for making the most of the last days of summer. Saturday's weather was amazing throughout the morning and early afternoon, so we went to Brookfield Zoo for White Sox Real Fan Days. Hannah's last zoo trip was warm and she slept through most of it. This was much more entertaining for all of us because she was awake the entire time! AND, I got the chance to indoctrinate introduce Hannah to the superior baseball team in Chicago.

First, we visited with Southpaw, the mascot for the White Sox.

He is not a furry dinosaur.

 Then, I got the opportunity to sign the crowded-because-they-are-more-awesome-than-the-Cubs side of the Crosstown Classic baseball.

So many signatures!

Woo! Signing an inflatable baseball is ZOMGAWESOME

I wrote "Sox win!" and signed my initials.

The White Sox half of the ball was uber-crowded with signatures, a clear sign of their superiority and the devotion of their fans. Unfortunately, Graham made us wander over to the other side of the baseball.

Signing all over the place because there was so much room.

 He had plenty of room to sign his name because no one wants to associate with the Cubs (this season, anyway).

He chose to spoil it by signing his daughter's name on the undignified side of the baseball. Someday, she will look back at this in anger.

So not the way she signs her name.

 Then we took a stroll and saw some animals. Graham was bummed there weren't any monkeys hanging around outside--he wanted to see them fling poop at someone. As we made our way toward the South American Coast building, we saw a few photo ops we had to take advantage of.

Butterflies are free!

Bats are gross and vile creatures who fly into your hair.

Before we went inside, we gave baby girl the chance to splash in some over-chlorinated water. She didn't actually get to play, but she had a blast watching the big kids.

Water is so much fun!

Yeah water!

This is almost as fun as my swimming pool!

Soon, very soon....

It dawned on us that we haven't given Hannah enough reasons to send us to Shady Pines Retirement, so we gave her another reason, for good measure.

"Just you wait, Big People...."

Inside the fish house, we realized we missed Aunt Mary.

"Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills!"

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

Then we realized we missed Aunt Robyn & Uncle Brian, too.

The Catan Debate probably isn't over.

After we were done missing people, Hannah was distracted by the birds of flight in the penguin exhibit. She was also distracted by the stench of armpit. It. Was. Everywhere.

We side-stepped the Bear exhibit this time, but we made time to see the bison roaming around their home.

We gave them a home.

 She didn't care all that much.

"Meh."

 Then we stopped and saw the giraffes, this time from the other side. We had a much better view and didn't have to use the giraffe-cam the zoo provides.

 

Once again, she was riveted. 

"What's that over there?"

As we wandered toward the gate, we were almost nose-to-horn with a rhino! He was just laying out by the front of his little space, right in the shade, which just happened to be up close and personal to all the people at the zoo.

"Why hello there!"

"He's got a big butt."

 

Ginormous.

 Then, as the clouds rolled in and our nice day disappeared, I decided to get artistic. I failed.

On the whole, it was a nice few hours at the zoo. Our membership is proving to be money well-spent this year. For as nice as it was this weekend, the zoo wasn't terribly crowded so we got to see what we wanted to see and spend time together. Family win!s