When the weather report boasted several days of sunshine and above freezing temps, a zoo trip mysteriously found itself on my calendar. As members of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we find ourselves here more times than I can count or document! As the blog post title suggests, this isn’t the first time I have made a blog post about the zoo and it won’t be my last. It has been a significant place for Bruce and I since our engagement here in 2011 and as our family has grown, so have the memories!

This place is magical year round but these warm winter days are my absolute favorite. The crowds are non-existent and the animals are more active and engaged. We stroll around at our own pace, soaking up the sun, being so very grateful for bright Colorado winters, and seeing all that we can see!

Watching the zoo through the eyes of my children awakens the wonder in my life again. I’m reading all the signs, asking the zookeepers questions, and engaging with the thoughts and minds of these tiny humans. On her own accord, Hilde stuffed her fanny pack with note cards and pencils and proceeded to sketch the animals she saw and copy their names down from the signs. I was super impressed with her homeschool assignment she assigned herself (that’s a homeschool win right?!?!) And at home we stapled them into a book so that she could “read it to Thorin when he needs to remember the zoo animals.” Simply adorable.

This may be yet another zoo blog post, but all these pictures mean so much to me. And what a gift that homeschool can look like this for us.