Zoo

I love the zoo. Seriously, what is better than a day at the zoo? Not much, my friends. I love to watch creatures do their crazy wild animal kingdom thing. This trip we watched a really excited ape swing from tree to tree. It was AWESOME! He (or she?) put on a huge show for us, complete with monkey noises and super cool Tarzan-like moves. Then we watched a gorgeous Koi fish eat stuff off the surface of the pond. We saw tons of macaws up close and personal, and stood right next to a sleeping monitor lizard. Hello? Am I the only one that thinks that is amazing? We even got to take a super fun train ride around the circumference of the park. The kids and I totally lucked out and got the very back row of seats so that our view of the train ride was completely unobstructed (notice Natty's concerned face in the picture below. I jumped off the train to take a picture and she was really afraid I wouldn't be able to get back on before it took off!). It was great. Oh, and we saw pictures of the crazy, bent neck giraffe that used to live there (alas, she passed away in January of this year, rest her poor, crooked soul).
I got some flower pictures (I love taking pictures of flowers! Why? They don't move!!! Kids are so hard to focus on...)
We capped off our zoo trip with the biggest money scam ever created--the smashed penny. Every time I make one of those, I cringe. I can't believe that I would actually pay someone fifty cents to remove all monetary value from my penny. But, the kids wanted a souvenir, and as much as I hate it, the only other thing in the gift shop going for under a buck was a post card, and that wasn't much cooler. So, I gave in and spent a buck on smashed pennies for the kids. I'm such a sucker. I know, somewhere out there, some grubby little millionaire is sitting on a pile of quarters laughing at me and my smashed pennies. Well, let him laugh. Mikey thought it was the coolest thing in the world and it bought me a quiet car ride home. It was totally worth $1.02. So laugh on--grubby, smashed penny millionaire! I was the real winner in that transaction!!!