zoo.

My summer vacation came to an end all too quickly.
I start back to school tomorrow.
No kids until the 14th, but lots and lots of meetings.

We hadn't gotten ZOO crossed off our summer to-do-list yet, so the kids and I made a trip on Wednesday. Perfect zoo day. Cloudy and overcast... almost wanting to rain. We got there early and beat the crowds. Such a fun morning!

We almost always take a picture of the kids by the orangutan statue near the monkeys. (Or whichever child is not scared of the statue at that particular moment. Last year the picture was just Sophie. It's the same statues year after year, my little scaredy-kids.)

A crazy lady kept us from our picture this time. She was above us, looking down into the monkey area, we were below, looking through the glass. I heard her talking the entire time, but assumed that she was talking to another person. Uh, no.

As we were getting ready to head up that way, she saw us, leaned over the edge and started yelling at us. I really wish I could remember what all she was yelling at us, but it was one of those "is this really happening" kind of moments and I was a little distracted. But I did get that she was mad at us for trying to teach those monkeys the Ten Commandments. And she didn't care if we were Iranian or not (really? Me, my little bleached blonde and red head. Never been mistaken for Iranian before.) We could just go ahead and call the police. Alrighty, then.

We passed Zoo Security (which from what I can tell means that they have a t-shirt that says "Security" and a walkie talkie). She kind of nodded her head at me and said, "Yeah. Something's obviously not quite right. We're keeping an eye on things." Okay, then.

So Lawson posed with the chimp. Cute little thing, isn't he? (Lawson, not the chimp.)

The kids loved watching the baby rhino roll in the mud.


Baby kangaroo. (Technically a Wallaroo or Wallaby or something, but calling it a baby kangaroo is more fun.)


And look at this baby monkey, riding on it's mommy's back. They kept coming right over to the side of the cage where we were. So cute.


But not as cute as these little people.


Sophie's favorite? The stingrays.


And to think, last year he wouldn't go near any of the statues. This year he was climbing all over them.



The otters were swimming all over the place. So fun to watch.




He threw his big ball right at us!


Trying to get some "country skills" so we can make our Daddy proud.



Washing hands after the petting zoo.
Lawson's face was cracking me up.




So thankful that I have summer days to spend with these little people.
So hard to believe that it has already come to an end.