Zoo Day

We had a blast yesterday taking my Dad to the Washington Park Zoo! It was a very warm day but the zoo has a lot of shade so it really didn't seem too bad. We brought the red wagon instead of the stroller, hoping that Grace might agree to sit in it at times but she hopped out at the first exhibit and didn't get back in again. Ethan rode happily in the red wagon for all but about 20 minutes which is pretty good!

We toured the African animals exhibits first where we saw the Cheetah, giraffes, zebras, bats, hippos, and gazelles. For some reason we saw the backsides of most of those animals. Guess that's what they thought of us! Grace was very happy to see the hippos and was also impressed with how tall the giraffe was. She must have thought I was kidding when I told her they were as tall as trees!

After the African animals we stood in line to see the new baby elephant and it didn't dissapoint. He was adorable! I chatted with the zoo keepers standing there some and they said he didn't quite know what to do with his trunk yet and kept trying to eat it. Reminds me of human babies and how they discover their body parts and aren't quite sure what they're for either!

I also discovered that he took in 16 gallons of milk a day nursing which made me really feel for the Mommy elephant. I can only imagine!

Ethan wasn't too sure about the monkey exhibit, he watched them with a pretty worried look on his face which was hilarious! The orangutans were wearing clothes so I snapped a photo to remind myself that if an orangutan is capable of getting up and dressed for the day so am I. Some days it's just too tempting to stay in pajamas.

After the monkeys we stopped for an ice cream break and enjoyed a cold treat. Grace enjoyed her strawberry cone and kept trying to eat it from the bottom up which got to be a bit messy!

After ice cream we saw the bears, the farm exhibit, and the Northwest exhibits where we saw some turtles that Ethan went nuts over. He got so excited and kept banging on the glass despite my best efforts to stop him. I'm sure the turtles loved that.

After the cougar was done looking at Grace like she was lunch we headed back to the car and the 90 minute drive from the zoo back to my Dad's office. Usually that drives takes half that time but traffic was absolutely terrible. I feel so spoiled to not have to deal with rush hour traffic like that on a daily basis! Then we drove home to play a little before bath time and bed time. It was a good day.

Hope you had fun Dad! I know the kids both did. Grace decided that she was a monkey, Ethan is a bear cub, I am a turtle, and David is a rhinoceros. She also pretended her wash cloth in the bath tub was a baby monkey so I'd say we'll be hearing about zoo animals for awhile!