Wildlife Prairie State Park

Yesterday, the kids didn't have school. So we decided it was a good day to visit my friend and her adorable little daughter. We took a trip down towards Peoria and spent the day at the Wildlife Prairie Park.


It only took 20 minutes to get the kids to stop shoving each other long enough to snap this shot:

They had a little movie about the park that played continuously inside the Visitor's Center. We were the only ones there, so the kids had more fun making their own shadow-puppet movies. We were able to get pretty darn close to some of the animals. This is a black bear. I thought black bears were a smaller bear, but this one seemed plenty big to me.
That's Cole up there on the observation deck, overlooking the prairie full of elk, geese and buffalo.

There are statues of animals all over the park. Of course, Cole (being the huge fan that he is of toads and frogs) wanted to take this one home with us. I'm sure it would've been lovely in his room.We had a really nice time visiting with Susan and Ella, and the weather was just beautiful. So it was a wonderful day to spend outdoors enjoying Mother Nature.