Adventures at the Zoo

It was a beautiful Sunday morning so we decided to pack the family up and go to the zoo. It would be the first time that we took the girls and we knew our 2-year-old would absolutely LOVE it, especially since her current favorite DVD is Barney at the Zoo. We were right, she LOVED it. More about that in a minute. Let me just tell you a little about what this day started like. We planned on being out by ten AM but since we spent a sleepless night up with the baby it was hardly easy to do anything in the morning but we were determined so we proceeded as if we had not had the kind of night we had. (I will spare you the details but just imagine, lots of screaming and no sleeping). Since we were going to be doing a lot of walking I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to take out the Double Stroller, but unfortunately it was still in the box-again, determination took over and I decided I would build it before we left. It took me about 20 minutes (maybe more like a half hour) to figure out how to open up the darn thing and then another 40 minutes to put it together. I often am the one to step up and want to build the things that need to be built or fixed (something I've loved doing since I was a child) but it was rather frustrating to be building something and have my spousal equivalent walk by laughing about how frustrated I was. Mind you, I did not want him to help as that would have made it worse, but just keeping his mouth shut would have sufficed.
So low and behold the "school bus" was built. And we were off to the Zoo (at 12pm!)
We finally arrive at the Zoo with a packed car (a friend came with us) and met more friends there. It was a beautiful sunny day and I just hoped for a day without much drama. I am proud to say that both of my children behaved. I received several compliments about my 2 year old and how well-behaved she was and also about the baby who slept most of the day (I knew I would pay for this later, but I'll tell you about that on another post).
We saw bears and leopards and turtles- it was such a great day!!! My two year old kept saying "Look mommy, the animals" with a HUGE smile on her face- I would not trade this for anything in the world!
I must say it was very sad to see a skinny polar bear and other animals that just seemed so out of their element. And so, dare I say, unhealthy. I know that I selfishly love to have easy access to these animals, but at what cost to them??? I will post pics so you can see what I mean. The leopards/panthers who I know need space to run had literally a closet space to live in so they certainly had no room to run. IT WAS SO SAD!
However, we did have a great day and my daughter felt like she was in a personal episode of Go Diego Go. She even pretended to have her binoculars all day- it was the cutest thing EVER!! If you've seen Diego, you know what I mean.
Well, I'm off to bed. My sister is staying over so that she can stay up with the baby and I can get some sleep- God Bless Her, but I don't think she knows what she's in for. Selfishly I won't tell her... I really need some rest.