the zoo is our playground

I have a confession to make.  Sometimes our house is a bit...let's see, how shall we say?  

Not so tidy.

Oh we're clean enough.  No worries about health violations or anything.  It's just that life happens in our house.  Times four kids.  And on our precious weekends when I look at either getting the house in tip top shape or seizing as much time with our kids at this stage in life?

 Well...for us it's a no brainer.

So the first Saturday in January, we overlooked the fact that our house was slightly disorganized and set off for one of our favorite family hang-outs.  We absolutely adore the NC Zoo.  After all, every time we go we learn plenty of new things.

Did you know that Caleb is much smaller than an average male alligator?

He measured it himself.  (Have I mentioned lately that this kid keeps us in stitches?)

Daniel also discovered that you don't necessarily need an iPad to have a touch screen experience.

The otter was particularly playful on this last visit and followed his finger around for nearly five minutes

This trip to the zoo was especially fun because of who we found hanging around.

my nephew pierson and caleb 'caught' in the playground spiderweb

Of course there may have been two masterminds behind the 'chance encounter' of running into the cousins.

i think we've finally reached the point that we don't get mistaken for twins 

We organized the rendezvous to celebrate Pierson's birthday.

And it was a fantastic day.

Cousins.  Blue skies.  Loads of photo opps.

And nearly five miles of trails for them to burn energy.

Which may have been a good thing considering the energy that comes with being a party of six cousins ages newly 8 to 4.  One zoo volunteer (who witnessed the excitement of my kids greeting my sister's kids as we arrived) commented that we may have brought the zoo with us.

Apparently we did find the limit of our two energizer bunnies.  Thankfully Daddy can still outlast them.

And you know what?  The piles of clutter at home were waiting for us when we got back.

Glad I didn't trade in a day of memories with my kids and niece & nephew to clean them up.