Zollman Zoo

Jeremy took work off on Mon, July 1. So we went to a little zoo about an hour drive away, near Rochester. The place was beautiful, the weather was perfect and the admission was free! All the animals there are native to the area and have been injured or sick. The variety of animals was impressive: eagles, owls, snakes, porcupine, badger, otter, fox, coyote, wolf, and black bear just to name a few! 

They had a little visitor's center with hands-on learning stations and children's books.

And free wagons for each family.

The park was so tranquil, we took our time with everything. We watched the black bear for a good 20-25 minutes. He was pacing back and forth. Tanner tried to follow him, but with his little legs he had to run to keep up with the bear.

The zoo was spacious with lots of pretty trees and plants. At one point, I hid in some bushes to feed Dallin. It was so nice to be out in nature! Jeremy carried Dallin on the bjorn.

Can you spot Tanner watching the donkeys? Tanner was thrilled about the farm animals. He's been into his farm books and farm toys, so he was in heaven. He is also obsessed with making everything into family units. He appointed a dada chicken, mama chicken and baby chicken; dada sheep, mama sheep, baby sheep; and so on for every farm animal he saw.  Finally, Jeremy told him, "You know, Tanner, not all animals are monogamous." But that didn't stop Tanner. He also does this for nonliving things, too, like buckets, trains, and pieces of food.

There were two baby calves (which Tanner insisted were not babies, but were BIG dada and Big mama cows). He was enjoying them until suddenly the brown cow moo-d right next to Tanner's head. Tanner leaped out of his skin, screamed with terror and bolted straight to me. It was hilarious! Too bad I had stopped videoing about 20 secs before that! 

When Tanner calmed down, he said "Mean moo!" Jeremy explained, "He was just sayin' hi to you. He was trying to be friends, but you got scared and ran away. You wanna try being friends with him again?" Tanner hesitantly said, "Ya." Jeremy brought Tanner back to the cow. They listened to him moo several more times. Tanner seemed to gain confidence by saying, "Wow, loud!" instead of crying. But he clung to Jeremy the rest of the time that they were near that cow!

My favorite part of the day was when our little family relaxed on a bench under the trees. (This gets corny, but I don't care!) The humid breeze carried the freshness of earth that I could almost taste. Dallin's cheek pressed against my arm, his sweaty body sprawled across my lap. Jeremy's golden hair and turquoise eyes glimmered in the sunlight. I rested my head against his neck and breathed in my favorite smell- aftershave mixed with sunscreen. In the distance, I could hear the chickens cluck. The peaceful humming of flies and grasshoppers were accompanied by Tanner's inquisitive questions "what's this, dada? what's this, mama?" It's amazing how joyful ten minutes under a tree can be!! Corny? Maybe. But these are the moments worth living for!