Wildnights

This weekend Cailey and I participated in her Girl Scout overnight at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo ~ called Wildnights! We got to the zoo at about 5:45p on Saturday. At 6:00p our guide, Morgan, greeted us at the gate and showed us to our "cabin" ~ it was a big room with two bathrooms and a kitchenette. The zoo closes at 6:00p so we had the whole place to ourselves. We got to eat dinner (pizza!) and then explore the zoo with our guide. It was very interesting to see some of the animals at night when they are most active ~ particularly the hippos. Who knew that hippos could be interesting and exciting!!! Apparently, hippos are most active after dark and we got a first-hand look at their activity. The hippos were trying to splash us and were playing in the water (chasing each other, etc.). I have never seen a hippo behave this way and it was a lot of fun! I have a new appreciation for the hippos! We also got to feed the giraffes as much as we wanted and pet them as much as we wanted! Cailey was scared of the giraffes as they like to stick out their 18 inch tongue... she said that was freaky and didn't want to feed them :o) We also got to spend some time watching the apes and watching them get ready for bed ~ a lot like human behavior. The girls went to bed around 10pm and then were up at 6am!  We didn't get a lot of sleep but it was fun, fun, fun. My only disappointment was that we didn't get much behind the scenes action. I was hoping to see the zoo keepers at work ~ feeding the animals, caring for the animals (babies!), and getting a look at the inner workings of the zoo. But, alas, it was really just a chance to have the zoo to ourselves ~ still a great experience! More pictures ~ I had about 250 pictures... so this is just a small sample:

The Troop:

One of the "wild" animals that wanders onto the zoo property.  Because it's a mountain zoo, we were told to watch out for bears and mountain lions, too... no joke!  Walking in the dark that evening was a little scary knowing that wild bears and mountain lions could be lurking in the trees... eek!:

Cailey and her BFF, Jacqueline:

Getting to touch the reptiles... unfortunately this was in the building that smelled really, really bad:

Feeding the giraffes:

Bonding ~ this gorilla really liked Cailey and was playing with her through the glass:

Learning how important our thumbs are ~ the girls had their thumbs taped down and then had to open a Tootsie Roll.  They also took the opportunity to get into character and act like monkeys:

One story before lights out:

Early the next morning ~ ugh: