Life's A Zoo!

It seems that lately, so many things in our life are changing and up in the air.

It seemed only appropriate to make a spontaneous trip downtown to forget about all our cares and just enjoy a nice day together. Matt is out of town, doing some work with his brothers so Quinton and I found ourselves with a whole Tuesday wide open for adventure!

At first, we were going to go to the planetarium to take advantage of a free day but as I was driving downtown, something unexpected happened...I noticed the sun was shining bright AND the outdoor temps kept climbing! Once my outdoor thermostat read 57 degrees, I decided we had no other choice than to change our plans! Who wanted to spend the day inside a planetarium all day when it was this beautiful outside???

Luckily, Chicago has an amazing FREE zoo!

So instead of the Adler Planetarium, Quinton and I found ourselves at the Lincoln Park Zoo - with a super-primo FREE parking spot on the NICEST day so far this year!

Now, I have lived in Chicago a combined total of almost 6 years and am sad to say that this was my first time at the Lincoln Park Zoo. But I am so glad I was with Quinton to enjoy it! We were both a little sad that Matt wasn't there with us so we intentionally didn't see everything at the zoo so that we'll have new places to explore when Matt can go back with us.

Our first stop at the Zoo was to check out the sea lions. Apparently, ALL the zoo creatures were just as excited about today's weather as we were because they were all out playing!


The Lion was so cool! He sat out on this rock the entire day sunning himself. As we left the park today, he was roaring up a storm! I told Quinton that he was saying goodbye to us and Quinton LOVED that!

This Jaguar was pretty cool, too.

Quinton doesn't believe me when I tell him that jaguars and lions are part of the "cat" family.

I think this is a great picture of just how magnificent a day it was!

Striking resemblances, huh?

We must have spent an hour in the Gorilla and Ape habitat. The shenanigans these guys pull are hilarious! There was a giant silverback in one habitat and he totally ruled the place! This poor gorilla below made the mistake of trying to snuggle up with Jo-Jo the silverback's blanket when Jo-Jo wasn't looking. Jo-Jo came right up to him and the poor little guy just handed it over. Then the little guy was left with nothing but some straw and so he tried pulling the straw over him like a blanket. Seriously, it was so neat to watch them interact. Quinton loved telling stories about what all of the gorillas were doing!

Of course, Quinton couldn't resist monkeying around!

After an hour with the gorillas, we hit the cafe for lunch.

Quinton's favorite part? His sprinkled ice cream cone!

This was Quinton's souvenir for the day. A straw safari hat. He cracks me up!

We had such a lovely day, we couldn't wait to share it!

Can you believe that after the day at the zoo, we went swimming tonight, too? Unfortunately, it's WAY too cold to go swimming outside so we went to the indoor pool at the gym. It was a nice way for me to feel less gravity on my 8 months pregnant body and it kept Quinton from taking a nap! All in all, this was a lovely day. Exactly what we needed to escape the uncertainty of daily life!