Zoo Day and Pictures

I hope your weekend went well.  Both zoo day and Mother’s Day went well, so I am now awake, rested, refreshed and ready to face the new work week.  (All right, at least I am awake!)  For a change, I managed to wake up and start writing before the sun rose – the birds appear to be much more enthusiastic about this whole “pre-dawn” thing then I am.  Morning people, how do you do it?

The trip to the zoo was fun.  Basically, the school buses pull up to the zoo and let the kids off, the kids are distributed to assorted parents and then all of us are turned loose for the day with instructions to return at 11 for lunch and 1:00 for bus loading.  In addition to Kayla, I had her friend Rebekah with us.  There is a walk through aviary in the front part of the zoo that Kayla wanted us to go through (twice), so that’s where we started.  Kayla found a feather in there, so I took her picture holding the feather.  I took Rebekah’s picture holding the feather, too.  To forestall any issue about whether Rebekah or Kayla got to keep the feather, I told them they needed to leave it in the enclosure.

We then worked our way around South and North America, including a visit to the reptile house (not my favorite place), the spider monkeys, several tamarin species, the jaguar and the ocelot.  I had to explain to both girls that the “cute” ocelot was not the kind of cat one would really wish to have in their house!  We also saw a sloth bear and several Patagonian capys (imagine something that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo, but about three times as big as the rabbit.)   The girls had the chance to go by the otter exhibit also, which is always popular. 

The giraffes and lions are at the very center of the zoo, so you really can’t miss them as you travel across the zoo, and the female lion, the only one out on Friday, was roaring.  With just a little imagination you can see what an eerie sound that would be out in the wilderness. 

After lunch, we rode the train, and then I succumbed to the same temptation that seized most of the other parents at the zoo – I took the girls to the playground, turned them loose and found a comfortable bench.  I was certainly not the only parent found on the park benches around the playground! 

Of course, Mother’s Day was this weekend, and Mark and Kayla had a special surprise planned.   They had gone to Sears and gotten their portrait taken for me.  In addition to having several photos in various sizes printed out, they also purchased the disk of their photos, with a full release of copyright, so I can share some of the pictures with you (Hang in while I go see what Darwin is tossing up and down in his mouth…..ahhh, it’s one of my headbands, but I got it before too much damage was done.  He’s not too happy with me.) 

Anyway, here they are:

I am thrilled with them and am a lucky woman to have such a wonderful family! 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy