Field Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday Nathan's preschool class took a field trip to the zoo. Aiden just happened to be off from school due to grade prep and budget reduction days, so we tagged along. And it just so happened that there were enough kids with memberships, everyone was able to get in for free. We had let our membership expire well over a year ago, as we'd had it for a few years and the boys were starting to get bored with going to the zoo all the time. But it was nice to go back for a day and not have to pay $30 to get in.

It was chilly, but quite a few of the animals were out having a leisurely morning, which made for great viewing.

We got to see the new baby elephant, Lilly and oh was she adorable! Trotting all over the place, walking in between her mommy's legs and nearly tripping her (hmm, much like human children do!), and pestering her big brother. There was a funny moment when Sam, her big brother, came along behind her, pulled her tail with his trunk, and then ran off. Sibling rivalry translates so well. :-)

After the field trip wrapped up, the boys and I decided to stay at the zoo for a little while longer. Because I had Aiden with me, I wasn't able to drive any other kids from Nathan class,so we had no reason to head back to the preschool. We had some fun going through Africa.

 Nathan is a crazy jeep driver!

 Future circus performer?

Our most interesting moment by far was our visit to the giraffes. One of the giraffes was...um, proudly showing off the fact that he had male parts. He wasn't doing anything with his male parts - just walking around, making sure that everyone could see it. Nathan's friend Rachel had been at the zoo the day before and her mom told me that the giraffe was doing the same thing while her family was there. As we walked up to the giraffe enclosure, I fully braced myself for a loud question or comment from either Aiden or Nathan. But instead, Aiden took one look at the giraffe and calmly said, "I know he's an animal, but I think he needs to put some pants on". I'm glad my child knows that you should not go around with personal parts whipped out for all to see. We quickly moved on to the next animal enclosure.

As we were leaving, we happened to meet our cousins Daniel and Levi, who were just arriving. It was fun to say hi. I almost warned them about Mr. "I have nothing to hide" Giraffe, but there were other people around us, so I didn't. I heard that they saw for themselves a little while later. Zoos are so educational!

Before getting in the car, we walked across the parking lot to spend some time on "Betty", the train that sits outside the forestry center. I asked the boys to pose like they were driving the train and this is what I got. I have no idea why Nathan looks angry/evil.

At least he's happy in this one.

After such a fun morning, I treated the boys to lunch at Red Robin, where they made sure to order their own food "like grownups". It occurred to me that I had never taken the boys out to a sit down restaurant by myself before. We've always been with someone else. So it was a new experience, but they did very well and we were very hungry after our zoo excursion.

We topped off the afternoon with a trip to the library and ice cream at McDonalds (coffee for me!). There was a small incident when trying to leave the library when it appeared and sounded like the engine of my car was attempting to escape from under the hood, but that's another post.

We had a great day and we all slept very, very soundly at bedtime.