zoo day...

Last week Chris and I let the kids miss a day of school and we went to the zoo to take all of our minds off of the heaviness of the previous days.  The kids couldn't believe they didn't have to go to school.  They actually asked if they were going to get in trouble for not being there.  At least I know I have instilled in them that we don't just skip school for no reason.  Hopefully, that will stick with them as they get older.

Landon loved the black bears.  He remembered seeing them last year when he visited the zoo with his kindergarten class.

One of our favorite animals was the chimpanzees.  

Everything was quiet when we first got to their enclosure and we were trying to see if we could find all of the chimps.  Most of them were sleeping...like this one who was balancing on the cross beam and holding on to the roof with one foot...

As a larger crowd gathered one chimpanzee got down from his perch high above the others and grabbed the child's ride-on car and noisily began pushing it around the enclosure.

This quickly woke the other chimps.  He seemed like he was just playing but then he started throwing the car and ramming it into things.  One of the ladies standing near us said the last time she was at the zoo the same chimpanzee picked up the car and threw it at the glass wall of the enclosure.  

I don't know about you but he looks pretty mad to me!

We decided to go check out some of the other animals so as not to further upset the chimpanzees.  As we were leaving we saw this...

Ummm...yeah, that isn't real reassuring.

The tigers were enjoying the warm day and lounging around...

the kids thought it was hysterical that this tiger was rolling around on its back just like Basil does...

The kids both picked up a map when we first arrived at the zoo.  Ashlyn was interested in hers for the first 20 minutes but decided she would rather just check out the animals.

On the other hand, Landon was obsessed with his zoo map.  I half expected him to lay the map on the ground so he could "go into the map".


The giraffes were one of our favorites...

they have so much personality...

this giraffe sat like this the entire time we were at the zoo...

and only moved to have what looked like a staring contest with zoo visitors...

I think the giraffe won.


As we walked the path we saw this unattended zoo vehicle...

I may be showing my age but this scene reminded me of a key moment in Jurassic Park and I was waiting for a mangled goat carcass to drop from the sky.

The kids thought the frogs were really cool...

Landon and Ashlyn were checking out two frogs and Ashlyn said, "look a mommy frog carrying her baby on her back!"  I am pretty sure that is not what they were really doing but not wanting to have "that" conversation I decided that mommy carrying baby was fine with me. Gotta love nature.


The elephants were my favorite.  

They are just so massive, these pictures don't do them any justice....

Landon's second favorite was the zebras.  He wanted a picture take with them for his room...

shortly after I took the picture a mother with what looked like a 3 year old little girl walked up to check out the zebras.  The mom looked away from the zebras to check out her phone for about five seconds and her 3 year old had gone under the wires and was INSIDE the zebra enclosure!  The mom was able to quickly grab the little girl but wow, that was really scary!  The zebras all stopped what they were doing and stared in the little girl's direction.  It was obvious they weren't used to having little visitors interrupting their lunch.

Ashlyn loved the tortoise...

It was pretty cool...

I attempted to take a picture of my family as they were walking. This progression is what it is like trying to take a picture of Landon...
1. not paying attention

2. devising a plan...

3.  and there it is...

(he looks like one of the chimpanzees!)

Ashlyn and Landon really wanted to look and see if the Oakland Zoo still had the cement frogs that they took a picture with the last time they were both at the zoo.  We came back in 2006 with one of my best friend's, Shirene and her little girl Vanessa.  They kids were so excited when we found the frogs!  I took a picture of them together...

This is the picture we took the last time we all came to the zoo with Vanessa.  It's been quite a while...


We had a beautiful day and it was a welcome distraction.  We are all doing well.  The grief comes and goes.  We have found that it comes at the strangest and most unexpected times.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.