Monday, October 20, 2014

Night Eyes

Three years ago we experienced Night Eyes at the Blank Park Zoo for the first time. That experience ranks as one of my worst ever experiences in life. Yes, it was that horrific. The whole idea behind Night Eyes is to go trick or treating at the zoo, but they had all of the animals put away! Not a single animal was out, it was beyond crowded, we stood in a line for 3 hours and got 12, yes 12, pieces of candy total (this was between two kids). I vowed to never go back....

Yet here we are three years later and my kids begged to go to Night Eyes this year. Apparently they had forgotten the horrible, terrible, no good experience. But I caved and off we went for an afternoon at Night Eyes. It was amazing! We had a great time, the kids had a blast, most of the animals were out, it was hardly crowded, we got a ton of candy, pictures with super heroes and fairies, and a ride on the carousel. I'm pretty thrilled I gave Night Eyes another shot because we had such a wonderful experience the second time around.

Before we went to Night Eyes, I made the kids eat a big lunch (thank you Famous Dave's) because I feared we would be stuck at Night Eyes for hours. I was proved wrong, but lunch was still delicious. My children's behavior at lunch however has inspired me to talk about eating out with children in tow (stay tuned for that blog).
We went in the middle of the afternoon (2:00 p.m.) so we didn't get to see these light up but they looked really cool! They also had elephants that lit up.
Hubs and I with our Ninja Turtles!
Before we even entered the zoo, they had performers doing tricks and got the kids involved. The kids loved that they got to do the tricks too.



The littlest turtle.
Harrison's favorite animals: the flamingos.

Not even half way through and they took their first rest.


They're in the dog house!
Trainers were feeding the penguins and having them do tricks for the crowd of people.
We found The Cat In The Hat and Thing 2. Elizabeth was scared to death and clung to Matt.
My kids each took turns being monkeys.



Once again Elizabeth was scared of Batman, so Matt had to hold her in the picture.
We're really perfecting our selfie skills!

I am so happy we gave Night Eyes another shot because it was a great and fun experience! I highly recommend checking out this yearly event (zoo members get discounted ticket prices). It's already on our calendar next year!