A couple of weeks ago, we attended Dreamnight at the Zoo, put on by Blank Children's Hospital and the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. We went several years ago when Andrew was a baby, and honestly we never went again because it was way too crowded! The line was so long to get in, that by the time you got in the night was half over. Then the line for dinner took so long that you hardly got to see the animals or do the other fun activities. I just never had a desire to go back, even though I think it is a great and free program for families with children facing illness.
Well, this year they split it up into 2 different nights, and it was awesome! Way less people and we got right in, and we knew this time to go straight to dinner first! No waiting! It was a perfect evening with beautiful weather and I'm so glad we went!
Do they look pumped for the zoo or what??
They had entertainment while we waited to go in!
Several people had different animals out for the kids to touch. Andrew loves this lizard!
But his face was pretty priceless when this guy came walking up the sidewalk!
He got a tatoo of a shark... "with blood!" he said! Ha!
We spent the evening with our heart friends, Andrew and his mommy and sister. Love them! And they had free train rides!
No she wasn't drinking the pop! Ha!
The zoo is improving year by year, this year they added a new Australian exibit and animals. Soon they are bringing Rhinos!
Another fun friend!
And something else to touch! Andrew is never scared of these things! You couldn't pay me to touch it! Ha!
This cracks me up! We put our girls in a picture with the princesses... had to do it! Kerigan looks thrilled, right? She was tired! Ha!
We just happened to catch the last week for the Ice Age exhibit, which couldn't have thrilled Andrew more!
Again, he wanted his picture taken by all these things, even the weird ones! Ha!
And the mammoth- his favorite!
I just have to write this conversation down to remember it... on the way home from the zoo we were talking about the displays and that last year they had dinosaurs. He was asking why we had to leave after the night was over and I told him the animals were going to sleep. He asked if the mammoth and those dinosaurs went to sleep too. I asked him if he thought they were "real" and he said no.
So we proceeded to discuss the fact that dinosaurs and mammoths are now extinct, which means they died a long time ago and don't live on Earth anymore. This seemed to shock him, and his lip actually quivered and he got tears in his eyes and said "I don't want the dinosaurs to be dead!" Oh my gosh, it was the sweetest thing ever! And let's just say I felt really bad for ruining the night by breaking his heart! Ha!
And this little girl fed herself her bottle for the first time! Yay!
Overall it was a great night and we saw many other heart families out enjoying the evening. It was just perfect weather and a perfect amount of people! We will definitely be adding this to our "must do" list every year!
