Zoo

Over the weekend the weather was beautiful here (mid 70's). Walter and I decided to take X to the zoo. He'd never been and the last time Walter and I went was who knows when. We also had free tickets to get into the children's area (thank you Andrea!) that were about to expire.

In an effort to keep the outing budget friendly we packed our lunches, took our children's area tickets (general admission to the zoo is always free) and headed out. In a stroke of luck we found a FREE parking space directly across from the $11 parking lot - SCORE!!

Overall we had a great time just being together as a family, enjoying the nice weather, and getting some exercise. I'm not sure that the animals held up their part of the bargain though. It was actually hard to see them in a lot of exhibits and when you did see them, more often than not they were just laying down chillin. Where's the excitement in that, huh? Oh well.

Here's Walter's attempt to take my picture with X since he says I complain that I'm mostly behind the camera. Um, not our best shot -- X is drinking and could care less, and I look like a hoosier with my white tank top (where is fall already? -- this baby is making me grow out of all my summer maternity stuff)

This is what we mostly saw of animals. Lot's of relaxin! This is a bushdog (whatever that is??)

X did seem to enjoy the fish. At least they swim around!

And you can't really miss the elephants, cause, ya know, they're HUGE!

At one point X was walking and just stopped, put his hands up, and starting turning circles amongst the crowds. These are the times that I wonder what exactly is going through his mind. But, he was happy to just spin and jibber jabber something we couldn't understand.

Oh yeah, and to eat snacks too. I think that was REALLY his favorite part of the zoo experience!

We stopped by the primate house and told X that "this is where the 5 little monkey live". He seemed a bit confused (maybe because there was no bed?)

I was excited to see the giraffes. They are pretty neat.

X didn't exactly share my feelings for the giraffes.

That look (and the accompanying whine) told us it was time to stop for lunch. We found a nice table in the shade and ate our PB&J sandwiches.

Then it was off to the children's area. By far the favorite spot was the fountains. X loves fountains.

Our last stop in the children's area was the big slide. X thought it was pretty neat to go down with daddy. But we quickly figured out that adults are a little big for this slide.

We tried to send X down by himself and that ended in disaster. I should have known this since X has a thing about enclosed slides (they kinda freak him out). So he stopped himself midway in the slide and just cried. I had to coax him to the bottom and even send a little boy up the slide to help pull him along. Once off the slide he went into full meltdown and clearly it was time to head to the the car.