ZOOmily

Of course Katelyn would discover "Bodie" the one show dog in all of the zoo!

On Saturday the 8th of August we took Katelyn to a special event at the Denver Zoo called "ZOOmily". The premise of the event was "bringing fairy tales from around the world to life". The zoo was organized into 4 main adventure areas: Enchanted Europe, Wild West, African Safari, and Mountain States Asian Adventure. Each adventure area featured costumed characters, an art activity, activity stations, food & desserts, native dances, & special animal encounters.

The event was held from 6-9 so we didn't get to do everything but here are a few highlights:

In Enchanted Europe, Katelyn loved the Irish folk dancing. At first she was a little shy to join in, but eventually her feet couldn't help but moving to the music. Although she's not read or seen Harry Potter, she was very enchanted by the Hogwart's activity station complete with a Quidditch match, Wizard's Giant Checkers at the Ravenclaw House, & the potion class at Slytherin House. And of course Prof. Dumbledore, Prof. Snape, Harry Potter, Hermione, etc. were all on hand to greet everyone. The Harry Potter series are some of my favorite books-can't wait till Katie is a little older so we can read them together!

The Wild West was really cool too. We were able to go inside a lifesize teepee, watch Native Americans dance wearing full head dress costumes, listen to a story very much like "The old women who swallowed a fly", but with a western theme about a coyote instead. This was really neat because they didn't just read the story aloud, they also acted it out with neat props & Katelyn was truly mesmerized!! At the animal station we visited some oppossums & learned about their habitat.

African Safari was right as you entered the zoo. At the entrance were African drummers & dancers which fascinated Katelyn. We also saw a lot of animals in this part of the zoo because we still had a lot of daylight. (Towards the end of the evening it was too dark to see the animals in their enclosures.) This was also where we chose to have our dinner: hamburgers, mixed greens & dressing, fresh fruits, chips, mini corndogs, and an oatmeal raisin cookie. It was really pretty good!!

By the time we made it around to the Asian Adventure it was pretty dark. We did get to ride the Carousel for free. The train was also free & there was a jumping castle too, but we had just run out of time!

Overall, we had a great evening! Katelyn was thrilled to get to wear her Snow White costume, the food was great, there were zoo docents throughout the zoo giving informational talks about the animals, the activities were awesome, and the best part? All the proceeds went to the zoo's Red Apple Fund which is used to provide scholarships to schools whose students couldn't otherwise afford the fee for a zoo field trip. Proceeds also help support the zoo's free days throughout the year for families who could not otherwise afford to go to the zoo. As perennial zoo members, we were happy to do our part to help support such worthy causes!!! If I could make only one suggestion it would be to change the hours of the event from 6-9 to 5-8 or even 4-8. It was too dark by 8:30 to see the animals or much of anything else, & 3 hours wasn't quite long enough to do all the fun activites. Other than that, it was a wonderful evening!