Day at the Zoo...

It's been so hot lately that Dennis and I have been waiting for the "perfect" day to take the kids to the zoo. When we woke up today to clouds and sprinkles, and the weather forecast predicted clouds and cooler temperatures all day, we decided today was the day!

We left around noon and I kid you not, as soon as we got there the clouds disappeared, the sun came out, and the temperature rose at least 10 degrees. So much for our perfect plan!

The zoo has a merry-go-round now! You'd think after all the fairs we've been to this year the kids would be sick of them, but it was one of their favorite things. Of course.





After seeing a few animals and riding the merry-go-round, we went to the bird show. Kaiya and Emmie saw the bird show with their aunt and uncle last year, but I've never see it before. We all loved it! They brought out some amazing birds, and it was really entertaining.



Unfortunately, in the middle of the show Claire was standing and jumping up and down, and somehow fell down onto the next row of people. She skinned her knee, her arm, and bonked her chin pretty hard! Poor baby! She was sobbing, and like the excellent parents we are we promised her ice cream if she'd be quiet for the rest of the show. It worked! I love bribery. Here are pictures of a couple of her "owie's" as well as a picture of her telling the story of her "big big fall down" when we got home...







Kaiya's favorite animal is the giraffe. This poor little guy spent forever stretching his tongue out trying to reach a leaf off the tree. He finally got it (people were actually cheering for him!) and then proceeded to choke on part of the branch that he ate as well. Kaiya was very worried about him.



Poor Hayden did not have much fun. I think she's officially sick of us dragging her around and would rather be home for a while. Good thing school starts in less than 2 weeks. Life has to calm down then, right?



Emmie is taking her role as big sister very seriously lately. I love it...



On the way out we stopped for cotton candy (hello, why else would I go?) and had to take the customary train ride. Just as we were leaving the clouds started rolling back in and the over-cast day we'd hoped for reappeared!







The girls were all tuckered out on the way home. Three of the four fell sound asleep. Kaiya took it upon herself to make up for the silence by talking non-stop the entire trip back.





All-in-all a pretty good day. Even with the little problems that pop up along the way, I always enjoy seeing my girls having fun together. Anyway, that's another summer thing we've wanted to do checked off our list! Now it's time for me to do back-to-school shopping for Kaiya. I think I'll enjoy that. Anything that involves shopping and air conditioning sounds great at this point.