Zoo day

The company my Dad works for had a summer party at the zoo. They were invited to bring their families...children and grandchildren alike. A hot breakfast was provided, along with face painting, a raffle and of course, free entrance to the zoo. We got an email from my parents...were we interested in coming along? Lilian and I jumped at the opportunity, despite the fact that I would still only be 3.5 weeks post op. I figured I'd take it slow and sit a lot of I got tired. Brandon didn't want to miss his gymnastics workout and Julianne had some other things on her Saturday to-do list so they both declined. But Bryan said he'd come! I have to admit I was surprised and delighted that he wanted to tag along. Katie came with her four kiddos (Dalton, Holly, Allison and Jackson) and Melissa brought Maddy.

Once arrived and in the specially set aside party pavilion, the kids immediately decided that face painting was the first order of business. I thought to try and convince them to eat first but Katie pointed out the wisdom of jumping in line before the line got long...and she was right. Not to mention, happily face painted kids would be much more willing to focus on breakfast. My Dad won two tickets to Lagoon in the raffle. All in all it was a successful morning and we hadn't even seen any animals yet!

(A butterfly, two rainbow cheetahs, a dragon, a wolf and a polar bear.)

 (Even Grandma decided to get in on the action and get a little butterfly on her face.)

But the animals of course were the main draw of the day. So despite the fairly intense heat and the crowded Saturday-in-summer zoo conditions, we headed out to do some animal watching.

The kids were pretty obsessed with the zoo maps...constantly referring to them to see where we were headed and what was up next. I think a favorite of everyone was Rocky Shores...the area of the zoo that housed the polar bear, sea lions and otters. They were super playful and therefore, really fun to watch.

"Run away....run away!!!"

In homage to dinosaur mania due to the new Jurassic World movie, there were life-size dinosaur models spread throughout the zoo. 

The zoo did indeed wear me out...helped in large part by the August summer heat. I tried to sit as often as I could but was red-faced and feeling decidedly lightheaded by the time we left the zoo. We had a wonderful time seeing all the animals and hanging out with the cousins, but as soon as we got home I climbed in bed and stayed there pretty much the rest of the day. It was worth it though!