Zoo Trip with Daddy

 Just before Josh left for Alaska, we went to The Oregon Zoo one last time as a family.

When we saw the black bears exhibit, I noticed some of the trees were wrapped in metal.  (I wish I'd snapped a picture), so I asked Josh what he thought that was all about, and he said (all casual and nonchalant) that it was to keep the bears from climbing out of their enclosure. He was totally right! All the trees near the perimeter were lined with shiny metal to prevent escape. Eek!

We "got" to see the condors eating their lunch. Umm, gross.  That's a dead baby cow.  The kids were completely enthralled.  I lost my appetite. Ha!

It's such a different experience to take these three to the zoo now.  When the twins were toddlers and Wyatt was a baby, it was super hard to navigate the zoo.  Now it's awesome.  They have no desire to run away, so its a far more relaxed atmosphere!

This was the first time I had ever seen the hippos out of the water!  They are massive!

Love giraffes.  Always have.  Always will.

As we were ending our long day (complete with a picnic lunch and elephant ears) the boys got a huge compliment.  

I had been working (all.summer.long) on getting the boys, especially the twins, to say "excuse me" when they got in someone's way.  Which, as you can imagine, happened all.the.time when we were out and about.  At the grocery store, the library, the park... They just didn't seem to get it.  I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall.

Then, miraculously, Logan cut in front of a woman at the zoo and said, "Excuse me" to her!!!  I missed the whole thing, but apparently the woman came up to Josh and said she hadn't seen such well behaved boys in years and that she was so impressed with their manners.  

When he told me, we high fived.  Total parenting win!

What a great way to wrap up the summer for us!

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