a day with animals.

We decided to visit Northwest Trek a few weeks ago since the kids had never been and I hadn't visited in probably 20 years! It was a long drive down there but well worth it. It wasn't crowded, wasn't too hot, we saw lots of animals and had plenty of fun running around all day.

 They opened up a new kids area a few months ago and it is amazing! Seriously, if admission wasn't so expensive I think we'd come and visit just for this. It had slides, ropes, climbing walls, forts, water and more. The kids played in here at the beginning and end of the day and if it wasn't for traffic looming in the back of my head, I would have let them play even longer!

 After playing for a bit we headed over to the tram ride. I have zero pictures of that entire experience because of a certain little toddler. The tram is about a 45 minute ride through peaceful acres of natural habitat all while searching for beautiful wildlife. There are many other people on this ride, many of whom have expensive cameras and are searching for that perfect shot of nature. The important part of the ride is remain quiet so as not to disturb any of the animals. Well, that sounds lovely and all, but for a 13 months old who has the  nickname, "Screaming' Simon" it's not the easiest task in the world. Thank goodness I happened to grab his Cheerio snack box right before we boarded. The big kids loved the tram, loved seeing the animals up close and thought it was so fun to have open windows to reach their arms out. Simon did as best he could, as long as I was feeding him Cheerios (or grapes my mom happened to have in her purse). There were a few screams, a few bad looks from those crazy camera people and a lot of moving around to stay interested but in the end we did it! Whew!

Off we went to explore the rest of the zoo portion. We saw bears, bobcats, owls and more!

 We finished at the Discovery Center which turned out to be one of the highlights of the day! I thought it would be a quick stop in this little building but all 3 kids loved exploring, making a craft, playing the quiz games and asking tons of questions to the volunteer.  It was fun (and helpful!) to spend time with my parents and let the kids see a new place. Thanks Northwest Trek!