Willow Park Zoo

We decided on a whim to take the kids to Willow Park Zoo while we were in Logan on Labor Day and it ended up being everyone's favorite part of the day.  I love it when that happens.  This zoo is very small but had a good variety of animals from around the world, including tons of birds.  We particularly loved the pelican and the swans.

I spy a sleepy fox.

The Capuchin Monkey enclosure.
We kept talking about "Night at the Museum" while we were here.

The Golden Eagle was huge.

The girls are doing their impression of the Spurred Tortoise of North Africa.
Sidenote: I'm not sure why they like doing these impressions.  It started with the moose at the
Albion Basin, then they impersonated the bison on Antelope Island.  Now tortoises.  Interesting.

Luke LOVED watching the tortoise.  He was talking to the tortoise, pulling himself
toward the animal by grabbing the fence, and had a fit when Ben tried to wheel him away.

This is a mute swan from Eurasia.  We thought the swans were just
beautiful, and check out how big this one is compared to the ducks.

Jack was really excited about feeding the peacock
and other birds in this section of the zoo.

Luke mostly followed the birds around.

Cat kept trying to help him feed the birds but he wasn't very good at holding
the food out in an open palm.  I loved that she was so patient with him, though.

This is about the closest Luke came to feeding the birds.

Emus!  They made the coolest sounds.  Before we realized the noise was coming
from them, we were wondering where the drum beat was coming from.

Seeing the pelican (Nigel) get fed several fish, and even watching the
fish go down his throat was a highlight for the kids.

Eliza was trying to pose like the napping trumpeter swan.

A better view of the swan.

A little chin scratch for the domestic reindeer, or caribou.  He was pretty friendly.

Cat was outraged that the turkey hurt her when she was feeding it.

Yet, she fed the turkeys again and again...

These guys happily played and played and played on the playground adjoining the zoo and didn't want to leave, even with the promise of a ridiculous amount of ice cream.

Sidenote 2: At what age do kids outgrow playgrounds?  Not that I lament the fact that my kids love playgrounds.  I really like that they still like playgrounds.  I'm simply curious.

After our infamous ice cream stop, we headed home.  We made a short detour to see the newly renovated Ogden Temple.  We mostly stopped by because the dedication is being broadcast in the area in a couple of weeks and Cat will be able to watch it with Ben and me, so we wanted her to be familiar with it.  We just drove around for a few minutes to appreciate its beauty.  Then we kept an eye out for all of the temples we could find during the rest of our drive home.  Guess how many we saw between Logan and home.

Nine.  No joke.  In less than 2 hours of driving.

Logan

Brigham City

Ogden

Bountiful

Salt Lake City

Oquirrh Mountain

Jordan River

Draper

Mt. Timpanogos

So, yeah.  It was a pretty good day.