There's a first time for everything

Bryan called home at 8:30am yesterday to see what the kids and I had planned for the day. I said I really didn't know, but thought we should do something special since the weather was perfect and the day before had kept us busy in doctor's offices and labs. Plus, I didn't want to sit around staring at the phone all day waiting for the doctor to call. Bryan suggested the zoo, so the kids and I started making our plan! Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang again and I was surprised to see that it was the doctor's office. CHEST X-RAYS CAME BACK CLEAR! We are still waiting for the lab results to come in, and Luke is reluctantly taking his "very yucky" medicine twice a day. Zach has junior golf this morning, so we will go straight to the doctor to have the TB results read once golf is over. After that I think we'll stop by WalMart to pick up some water guns for Luke's birthday party next week. My kids would be delighted to talk your ear off about this much anticipated "Spiderman water party".

So... Today was a day of firsts. The kids and I drove an hour away to visit the zoo... This is not the zoo closest to our house, but it's small enough that you can walk the entire thing in two hours, the animals are close enough that you can really get a good look, it has a great park across the street - plus we have friends that we were trying to visit while we were out that way. We have been to this zoo several times before, but I'd never taken the kids by myself and, for some reason, we'd never been to the park!

We'd never noticed this bench before. Luke took one look at it, raced over, laid down and said, "I'm a monkey!" He LOVES monkeys!

I've been to a lot of zoos, but I've never been this close to a tiger. It had me wondering just how thick that glass is.

Mama and her three-week-old baby. Zach loves giraffes, so he was so happy to meet this newest addition to the zoo.

He's still a monkey!

Earlier this year, the hippo that had been at this zoo for 42 years passed away. When we were here in February the hippo tank was empty. Today we found that a new friend had moved in!

Where did you come from? In all our walks through the tropical rainforest, we have never met this little creature.
I love Luke's body language.

Just hanging around... Another creature that apparently has always been in the rainforest - we'd just never noticed them.
And there were LOTS of them.

The boys loved feeding the ducks, something we rarely do since I hate letting animals eat out of my hand. It just seems so gross, but my boys find it delightful.

As we were leaving the zoo, the boys found some rocks to climb on (sooo not a first!)

...and a shady place to sit and watch the ducks.

The park is FULL of these huge animals for kids to climb on. They've been in the park for 30+ years and the kids just love 'em!

"My very first ride on a see-saw!" and they loved every minute of it.