Zoo

I had somewhat high hopes for getting to the zoo before 10AM when everyone else was arriving, but that just didn't happen this AM. That's ok. Just by checking out our new neighbor's yard sale, Ben got some extra hose fixtures and we got to borrow their membership card, which made parking free ($20 savings - not too shabby!).

We parked the car down by the barn yard animals . I always thought this was a dumb addition to the zoo.....until we had kids. Then, I became grateful. As we're waiting to park the car, Rachel looks out the window and sees this lovely, black pig.

Rachel: What is that animal?

Ben and I in unison: It's a pig.

Rachel: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. But it's not cuddly!

Best quote of the day. No, most pigs aren't really cute and cuddly like the pictures and Fisher Price suggest:-)

It was a great outing....made even better by free parking. Nothing worse than hiking up a large hill (Major thanks to Ben for pushing the Mack Truck w/ the kids in it!), seeing most animals, dealing w/ whining from hot children at times, fending off alleged starvation and dehydration for the kids, only to have to pay a large sum of money to leave the parking lot:-)

Rachel and Naomi liked the elephants, lions, apes, and barnyard animals. I wish they had the sea otters available for viewing....they're kind of fun to watch dart around in the pool. I think they're back in 2012.


If you squint, you can see the zebras behind Rachel's head.

Naomi loved the barnyard animals. She also might have liked the ability to get down and roam around and have everything on her eye level. But she was super excited for the cow and miniature donkeys! It was hard to capture her excitement....she didn't stay still for very long!If you look closely, you can see the lion behind Rachel. He was pacing by the water....put that with a squirmy 3 year old, and it gets a little difficult to get all 3 components in the picture. Ben did a great job though:-)