Zoo Day!

Today was a gorgeous NON-90+ degree day so we decided to get out of the house and take advantage of it! Doesn't look like we'll be getting too many of these this summer, unfortunately:(

Since I'm looking for inexpensive (or free!) activities for the summer, the zoo fits right up our alley. Since we have a membership:) I don't think I've ever gone by myself before but today the munchkins and I packed up a lunch (well, I did all the packing....) and after a quick trip to the library to pick out prize #2 for Samuel (who's a reading machine!!), we unsuspectingly joined the other 2,384 people who decided to zoo today.

We decided to hit up animals that we usually ignore. Or forget about. Things like bats, wombats, and hedgehog/porcupine looking things. Animals like that;) The wombats were actually incredibly adorable. They sleep on their backs with all feet spread out, looking for all the world like dead rugs. If you haven't seen one, take a peek at what one looks like! Haha.

 After peering at dead-looking wombats and creepy flying stinky bats for awhile, we came out into the fresh air and dawdled over giraffes, zebras and adax's before decided it was time for lunch.

Okay, the boys decided it was time. Since they are never NOT hungry! Why didn't anyone warn me about this?? When I was growing up, my mom and 4 sisters and I would split one large pizza and have leftovers.

True story. But now? Now, our family just looks at a large pizza and it disappears into thin air! And half of a second one, too...

I just love making fun memories like this with the chillins! We were walking around a huge water fountain/pool they have in the middle of the zoo and Samuel said, "Are there animals in there?" I said I didn't think so but maybe there were some fish in there.
To which Samuel replied, "Oh, I like fish! They're yummy!"

Hahaha!

 Missy kept looking at the animals and saying "Wook! Wook!" I have to walk a fine line with her, keeping her contained but also allowing small amounts of freedom. Toddler hood=Rights and free will.

We did something we've never done before! We got to visit Stingray Bay today. They have a huge "pool" filled with stingrays and you get to touch them! The boys seemed really excited but Zakkai refused to touch them and said it was too stinky in there. It was a little fishy smelling..

So I was the only brave one out of the 4 of us. They were weird feeling~smooth like you would imagine a dolphin's skin to be, yet with small grainy particles on it. If you held your hand in the water very still, they would swim right up and glide under your hand, almost like they wanted to be petted!

Of course, the exhibit exited right into a gift shop where the boys tried to sweet talk their poor (literally) mama into stingray stuffed animals. Right. Thankfully we made it out unscathed and happily as poor as when we went in:)

Our last stop was to see some aquatic animals, after a quick rest at the water fountains, per request of Zakkai:)

Samuel was really excited to see dolphins and was really hoping to see a big, fat walrus. Unfortunately, there wasn't one that we found.

"Wook!"

She partied hard and strong but definitely started to fade towards the end. She enjoyed watching the peaceful, fun-loving dolphins swim around but I knew we had to make a quick escape for nap time.

She almost made it.....:) She slept through a transfer to the car and from the car to her crib, where she crashed for 3 hours!! I had to wake her up for dinner!

Definitely the sign of a fun day:)

She was in rare form tonight, being awake and wild while her brothers were being put to bed. The boys decided they wanted to sleep in their bean bags (where Samuel has actually been sleeping for almost a month!) and Eliana chose to visit with each other them for a few minutes. Where is she?

There she is!! Samuel asked me if they could add a prize to their collection which would be "sleeping with Missy." I vetoed that one very quickly! Can you imagine?

It was a fun day and a great way to start out the week. Happy Monday!