My youngest turned me on to this idea. She and her family (the 3 kids) have a family membership at the zoo. It's great! A little gas money, a packed lunch with snacks and they can stay all day, not rushing through to see everything. After all there is "next time".  Her boys love the interactive museum in town too. Great for the very cold days of winter. So we bought that family membership for them.

Older daughter wanted the zoo membership and as luck would have it, they are running a membership drive right now. Extras like free train rides and free admission to their specialty events like "Zoolights" at Christmas.

Now both can go to the zoo together anytime, enjoy each other's company and let the kids play and have a grand time.

I'm so glad she mentioned it when we went down in August. Of course, we also ordered a toy (from Amazon.com, free shipping!) for each kid to open Christmas day. Not much, but had to do it, ya know?