a day at the zoo!

ok, so it was a morning at the zoo...but that's all two little ones can handle :) maribeth, carter, miller, sarah, drew, and i took our first official outing as a six-some this morning! aren't we adventurous!?! overall, it was a smashing success! to begin with, it takes about 30 minutes to get to the zoo. and drew traditionally HATES car rides. actually, sarah never liked the car until she was forward facing (at 1 year and 20 pounds--no britney spears wannabes here!). neither of my kids seem to think the car is a good place for a nap either...but i could make an entire blog about my car issues...

anyway. so, drew was pretty tolerant on the way there. he was ready for a nap about 30 minutes before we left the house, so i was secretly hoping he'd relent and fall asleep on the way there...no such luck. but, he ended up awake except for a few (tiny) catnaps throughout the zoo extravaganza and pretty happy. he was really happy once we went into the air conditioned observation room in the northwest passage and i took him out of his carrier. after we had been there about 1.75 hours, he had had enough. so, we decided our zoo day was at its expiration date :) as SOON as we got in the car with the air conditioning, he fell asleep! so quickly, in fact, that i wondered if he had passed out! he was fine--just a nervous nelly mommy moment!!!

so, that was drew's day at the zoo! sarah had very mixed emotions towards the zoo. the actual being at the front of the double stroller and people watching thrilled her to no end, but the animals were a little intimidating! now, the animals were spectacular today! the lions, elephants, panda bears, polar bears, and monkeys put on a great show for us! the lion was like 3 feet away from us--when it roared! that was maybe 2 minutes into our zoo visit. i think it kinda set the tone of sarah's day. she was really excited when we first got to a new animal, but then she leaned back in her seat as far as she could and said, "nope" when i asked her any questions about the animal. she was all too eager to wave "bye-bye" to each animal too! so, the lion gave her a healthy fear of zoo animals :) but, she was a little angel the whole time we were out.

i thoroughly enjoy going to the zoo myself...i think i would go if i didn't have kids. i definitely think at sarah and drew's ages, i am the one getting the most out of the trip! it was amazing to watch the polar bear swim from our view below the water! it seemed like the bear was swimming in slow motion! the memphis zoo is awesome...and improving all the time! maribeth told me that by 2010, several more areas will be completely renovated! they have already made so many improvements over the past several years! i also think its really cool that my kids will grow up seeing animals from all over the world right here in memphis. a couple of centuries ago, if you didn't live in africa, you would live your whole life without seeing a zebra or elephant (and maybe not even knowing they exist)! well, that's my philosophical thought for the day :)

like i said, the zoo trip was fantastic! we will definitely have an encore presentation!!!