5,704th trip to the zoo

As you can tell, Brendon was more than excited

When I planned our trip to the zoo I figured we would only be there a short time considering Timothys age and that the older kids would be walking the whole time. Imagine my surprise when we stayed nearly six hours. You are probably thinking I have lost my mind but I have actually come to a realization....at the zoo I am the mom I want to be. When at home I have "things to do". I am continuously saying "in a minute", if I do it at all. At the zoo there are no dishes to be washed, laundry to fold, shelves to dust, or floors to vacuum. At the zoo there is only free time to feed as many fish as we want and stare as long as we want at the monkeys.

I am considering moving in

I didn't really think Timothy would enjoy himself because of his age but boy was I wrong. This was our first stop. The chimps were wild, swinging from the lights, jumping from here to there and clapping like crazy.

Here are our fish
On the way home Kati said we forgot to see the ostrich. She was so busy with her fish that she didn't notice the birds right across the water even though we were probably there for twenty minutes.

Brendon really wanted to feed the birds so I let him be a big boy and buy his own bird food. He threw the dollar at the guy and walked away without any food, I had to send him back. He did a great job, I was very proud.

Timothy loved the bird house. He really wanted to touch one

so close, so close

man, I just missed him

got him

He was so happy in there

What a cutie

Even more cuties

We went back to visit the chimps again and found this family with a new baby in the outside exhibit. Brendon and I stood right next to the glass admiring the new baby. I got really excited because the dad started walking toward us and I was thinking how nice it was going to be for Brendon to see him close up. So there we are admiring with Bear just inches away from the glass and with the dad chimp just a few feet away when all of the sudden the chimp runs straight for the glass and throws himself right into it. Poor Bear starts hollerin' "That monkey hurt me!"

We stopped to see the gorillas again too and where lucky enough to have one sitting right by the window

As you can tell Timbo likes her but if you look closely to this picture and the one before it the gorilla is not looking back at him but somewhere else

She only had eyes for Kati

We went to another window and again, look closely, the gorilla is still staring at Kati

Kati got up and moved to the other side of the glass and guess who moved too
(still staring)

The kids were ignoring her while I was taking pictures but she wasn't going to have any of that, she knocked on the glass to get their attention! (She did this three different times)
(still staring)

At one point another little girl came up to the window and I asked my children to step back since we had been there so long. I kid you not when I say that the gorilla was craning her neck all around to find Kati.

Kati loved the gorilla some much too and wanted to know things about her. Kati cared so much that I stepped completely out of my comfort zone and went to find a zookeeper. I waved to her through the glass and she was nice enough to come see what the crazy lady wanted.

We found out the gorillas name is Fred (yes it is a girl), she is 17 and has never had any babies (Kati wanted to know). She also has a half sister (she was in the background of one of the pictures)

I just had to add this picture. He was having so much fun playing in this crack.

I should brag on my big kids here and tell you that they walked the whole time and didn't complain once!