An awesome time at the Zoo!

Ok, so sadly I did not take my camera to the zoo when we went last night. I kicked myself a couple of times for my neglect at camera duty but oh well. So, why was it so great at the zoo last night? The weather was great! Not rainy like they said it would be, not really that cold, no wind or snow... pretty mild. We went right at closing, purposefully so that we could see the animals and still catch the zoo lights before all the crowds. The animals were terrific! The monkeys were fun to watch as always. We headed over to the giraffe house and they are one of our favorites. We had fun watching a giraffe try and get at some pine cones in a cage, we laughed at a giraffe licking the wall of the house with it's crazy purple tongue, and then we stood there mesmerized as a giraffe reached out at took a stick out of Caleb's hand with it's tongue and then ate the stick right there in front of us. Caleb was on cloud nine! If that was not enough, we headed over to the tigers (our other favorite) and one of them came right up to the fence ( a foot away from us) and with it's nose pressed against the gate starred at Caleb for about 2 or 3 minutes. Then he walked over to a ball that was in the water and played with it for a bit and performed perfectly. It was so cool! The boys managed to get me to pay money for the carousel and they had the pick of the litter. Peter chose the ostrich, William chose the tiger, and Caleb chose the lion (Haley chose me). Peter said that was his favorite part of the night. All along the way we were able to see the Christmas lights turn on and it is so fun. They have all the animals; the tigers, meerkats, zebras, hippos, seals, turtles, elephants, deer, even Santa and his sleigh in lights with motion. I personally think is ranks right up there with Temple Square, if not more fun and engaging. As we were about to leave who should we meet but Santa himself. He was there to kick off the Zoo Lights and make it a magical night. Peter went up and gave him a hug, Caleb was conveniently wearing his shirt that said his name so Santa called him by name (without Caleb even realizing that Santa read it off his shirt) and Willy shook his hand and said hi. It was perfect. Caleb said he loved it all, he just wished he could have told Santa what he wanted for Christmas. I had a blast with my boys and Haley was perfectly sweet and stayed asleep the whole time. The zoo is awesome and even cooler with Christmas lights and performing animals and Santa.