Daddy took us to the zoo!

**We've had a blast while Ian's been off from work this week. If we had known earlier (he found out on Dec 20 that he'd be off until Jan 5) that his company was going to be closed we may have headed somewhere exciting, but in the end staying here and acting like we were on vacation was pretty fun. We've slept late, stayed in our pajamas until after noon some days, eaten out several times, done some shopping together, played with Christmas toys, and today we finished it out by heading to the zoo.**

The weather was glorious and made a perfect day to aimlessly wander the trails. Well, almost aimlessly ~ Kylie started asking to see the zebras as we got out of the car... However the Africa gate was closed, so we had to start in North America and make our way across. First stop, sea lions and harbor seals!

I think that we could have stayed at the underground viewing area for another 30 minutes and then gone home and Caleb would have been thrilled! Unfortunately the camera can't record squeals ~ wish you could have heard him when one of the sea lions brushed up against the window! Kylie was also happy to watch the sea lions and seals swim by for about 10 minutes, and then we started hearing, "Where da zebas?" So on we went!

Of course we had to make a 20 minute stop at the play ground! Both kiddos had a blast.



Along the way to the zebras, we stopped to see most of the habitats. One great thing about being at the zoo in cooler weather is that most of the animals are quite active! We saw bears frolicking in their water, elk hanging out, and elephants running. Each time Caleb would squeal and point excitedly and Kylie would join in the excitement and then after a few minutes ask, "Are we doin' to see de zebas yet?" Talk about a one track mind! And so we'd start walking again ~ here are some pictures along the way...

"Hey Mommy, you see that gorilla?"
(I got a kick out of the fact that despite his excitement he couldn't part with his pomegranate/blueberry V-8 Fusion juice)

"Elephants are BIG!"

"I can pet this rhi-nos-rus!"
(This picture is worth clicking on to enlarge to see her expression ~ it's priceless!)
Sadly this was the only rhino we saw today, not sure where the real ones were hiding...
Look what hatched out of these enlarged ostrich eggs!
"Fin-a-yee! Will you lif me higher Daddy? I want to see bedder!"

We could have finished our day here. Several of the zebras were right there and Kylie was enthralled! One fun note, after I put the camera down and picked Caleb up so he could see, I caught a college age guy taking a picture of our family. Seriously? I thought we left that in China! I wanted to hand him my camera and ask if he'd mind taking one with mine too, but decided that was sassy and simply smiled at him instead. He knew he was "caught" and sheepishly walked off and let us admire the zebras in peace.

ROAR! (Or actually I caught a series of him yawning...)

One fun Kylie story. The female lion was sunning herself near the male. Kylie looked up at me and asked, "Mommy, which ones da guhrl one?" I almost flat out told her, but decided to check her thoughts so I asked, "Which one do you think is the girl?" She pointed to the male and said, "Dat one cauze it have long hair like you Mommy!" I told her that was very good thinking, but actually the one with long hair was the boy. Wish I had the camera ready to capture her expression that followed!

"What, dare are dirafs behind us? Oh well, we have doldfish, who cares?"

By this point our munchkins were pretty much done. They didn't get whiney, just tired and hungry. Luckily it was nothing that a stroller ride and some goldfish couldn't fix! (Both kids ~ and me for that matter ~ took a snooze on the way home). It was a wonderful day and the perfect finale to our "stay-cation!"