Christmas Camels!

Our family has gone to the Reid Park Zoo's Christmastime Zoo Lights event every year for many years now; our first visit was in 2006, when Lorelai was only one year old! We went to the lights this year with mixed feelings, as this trip marks the last year we'll do so as members of the zoo. After our membership expires next year, our admission costs for the Zoo Lights will be full price. Since we are a bunch of cheapskates, we're not sure if this will be our last year enjoying the Zoo Lights or not! Time will tell, of course; however, we have always enjoyed the lights and maybe we'll find a way to fit it into our budget.

At any rate, those future thoughts were for another day. For this visit (on Monday, December 8th), we only wanted to focus on having fun and enjoying the holiday season. And in this regard, we were not disappointed! But before we could enter the zoo, we had to gulp down some dinner first:

Nathan took the bus to the zoo from his downtown office, but not before picking up some Subway sandwiches for us. We all devoured them greedily, then waited in line to get inside. The nights were finally starting to get chilly, so we bundled everyone up well.

The lights were the same sort of thing we see every Christmastime at the zoo, with a few little variations here and there. The girls really enjoyed this giant "light snake":

And of course, they always enjoy the artificial snow-storm!

You'll have to imagine the snow, since it's not really visible in the picture

Since the Expedition Tanzania wing of the zoo opened in 2012, a lot of the light displays have been migrating there (it's where the elephant enclosure is located). The large synchronized light show, for example, was scaled down and moved to Expedition Tanzania. Even though it was smaller, the light show was still a lot of fun because it now surrounded a walkway, meaning visitors could walk underneath it...and dance "inside" of it, as our girls did for a while!

The Santa-face sang a lot of the music, to my daughter's amazement and fear.

But the most exciting addition to the zoo was the arrival of some new animals...

Camels! And not just any camels; camels you could actually ride on...for a price, of course.

The girls have always loved taking pony rides at the various community events they've attended over the years. As soon as they saw those camels, they begged to ride them. And because Nathan and I are pushovers when Christmas comes around, we paid the extra fee to let them ride.

It was really neat to see the way their eyes lit up with amazement when they got their chance to board the camel (they all rode together on one animal). They waved and laughed and shouted in delight. Nathan and I regretted somewhat that we'd indulged them, but the joy in their faces mostly mitigated our worries.

The ride didn't last too long, but the girls were very impressed by the camel's "bumpy back." Apparently, the camel rides are a brand-new program at the zoo, and due to their popularity, they will likely become a long-term fixture there! My girls like the sound of that...but I hope they don't think they will get a camel ride every time they visit! Hopefully doing it during the Zoo Lights (with everything decorated so beautifully) will make this particular experience stand out in their minds.

Not long after that, it was time to head home; it was still a school night, after all. If 2014 turns out to be the last time our family visits the Zoo Lights, we are happy we ended this tradition on a high note...with camel rides! Yeah, that's how you do it! I hope this will be a happy memory for the girls for a long time to come.