A Day at the Zoo

Disclaimer: Not only were no animals harmed during the filming of this day, only one animal was even photographed during the day.

Where was my head? I am not sure, but when I got home I realized that I had not taken any animal pictures. They would have been nice to have for the boys to remember the day, they would have been nice to blog about. Not a zoo expert by any means, I have only been to the Pittsburgh, Cleveland and once to the National Zoo, I think that Pittsburgh has a great zoo, reasonably priced and very kid friendly. The people in Pittsburgh, not to brag, are very friendly and courteous and as many times as we "bumped' people with this wagon, all of them were so kind and understanding.
Here are the boys ready for the day. We bought the boys this wagon two years ago this Christmas and I would love to know how many miles are on it. It has been so well used and the boys love it. I must say that there were many people coveting our transportation at the zoo. This is Logan watching the elephants eating "salad" and telling me that he is not leaving the elephants. I think that they were his favorite. Logan is not an animal lover. He is scared to death of any dog, but he loved almost all of the animals at the zoo. I was concerned that he would be scared, but I think that he would have watched the elephants all day. I would like to take him back to the zoo alone sometime without his 2 second attention span brother.

Tyler saw someone with a lollipop right away and thought that he needed one. I would have never done this with my own children but they worked on these lollipops all day. Papa is just posing with his, he really didn't eat it.

Crowd Control Tip: Buy the kids lollipops and open them, allow their faces and hands to get really sticky and watch the crowd part for you. It worked GREAT! We got to the front to see every animal. The only time that it backfired was when Logan was scared of the penquins and practically climbed right up me, hand, foot, lollipop, hand, foot. Luckily, the wagon has a large trunk with a generous supply of baby wipes packed in there by Mom.

Papa pulled the wagon all day. What a workout! I think that he could skip the gym on Monday.

The boys had to ride the safari jeeps.

And the log ride.

Tyler wasn't sure about petting this sheep.


Logan was glued to my hip like a velcro monkey.

Finally he felt it.

And that was enough.

The ride home, note the lollipop still in his hand.

And Logan mid drink.

It was a great day.

Mild panic: Set in when they were playing in this maze of tunnels and we could not see them. All the other parents, sitting in the lawn chairs relaxing, had to think that I was crazy looking in all the holes to find them, but it was a little panicky, not being able to see them.

Minor meltdown of the day: Occurred at the stingray tank where for what unknown reason they allow you to "pet" the stingrays. Having had the pain of being stung by one of these, the logic and reasoning behind allowing children to pet them is beyond me, but Tyler saw the opportunity of putting your hands in water to splash everybody else that was standing around the tank. As I dragged him away screaming, to the slightly annoyed stares of a lot of wet people, I had to calm him down by explaining that everyone there was not happy to get splashed!

Observation of the day: A two year old does not understand the concept of the tunnel under the polar bear water tank and now thinks that polar bears fly.

Great day, great to be a grandparent, having sent them home, I can rest today!