Another day at the zoo

I absolutely LOVE my kids.  They are seriously the most amazing kids ever.  Seriously.  They are so loving, helpful, happy, kind, intelligent, talented, imaginitive, well behaved, and fun little people.  And I am so lucky to have them.  And even luckier to be able to spend as much time as I do with them.  I truly am blessed.

Okay so it's been a while since Friday, but I decided I needed to clear some pictures off my camera and remembered I never posted about our last Friday fun day.  We went to the zoo a month ago with my sister, but it was a long and hot day so we didn't see the Asian Highlands or the stinky animal building (the reptile and small animal building).  I promised the kids we'd go again before winter to see the rest.  By the time we got Spencer from school and got down there it was already past 2:00 (even though Friday is his early out day).  I gave the kids a snack in the car and when we got there I lathered on sunblock, put the girls in the double stroller, tossed the cold water bottles in the stroller basket, and headed in.  I still had a Dr. Pepper can discount to get one child in free and Clara is still free so it only cost $16.  The zoo is a place I have to say is technically worth the price of admission.  I mean you can really spend a good deal of time there, it's educational, and I know it's expensive to take care of the animals.  I'd rather give them my money than a company just out to make money.  That being said, it still gets expensive.  Fridays are a big reason why I'm thinking we may be done with 3 kids.  Now that Tessa is 4 I have to pay for her pretty much everywhere we go (Soldier Hollow Classic and Rocky Mountain Raceway still give her a couple more years).  And Clara now costs lots of places too!  It's getting more expensive to have fun with them!  Okay, back to the zoo...

We always get a kick out of watching the monkeys.  Clara even loves watching them move around.  But they're doing construction right by them so a lot of them were inside and just sitting around.  The elephants are always fun to watch.  It's amazing to the kids to see such large animals up so close.  And I think they're sick of hearing about my experiences in India helping bathe the elephants in the river and riding on them.  We also love to watch the giraffes.  Again seeing animals so much bigger than us is quite an experience.  All but one of the tigers were asleep, but it was fun to watch the one awake tiger pacing back and forth.  They are truly a beautiful, mysterious animal.  Spencer really wanted to see the wolves, but they are a hit or miss and none came up while we were there waiting.  We also saw the camels, some other big cats, orangutans, gorillas, rhinos, turkeys, peacocks, ostrich, and the stinky animal building (reptiles and small animals).  Despite the smell the kids love this part.  They can get up close to the glass of so many cool things.  The crocodiles are here as well as plenty of snakes, lizards, turtles, and spiders.  There are some smaller wild cats, porcupine, monkeys, bats, birds, and Clara's favorite I believe was called a Cavy (?).  One came right up to the window and Clara just kept waving and saying "Hi-i" and blowing kisses.  When I stepped back to take a picture she banged on the window so I pulled her back a bit but the little guy just kept staring at Clara.  They were about the same size.

I feel like I have so many pictures of the kids and the animals at the zoo, although apparently most of those are Spencer when he was a baby.  In any case, I didn't take too many pictures this time except when Spencer wanted the girls out of the stroller to join him on one of the statues.  Here are a couple of those:

And they have the wooden horses in the sand area they used for the dinosaur bones over the summer.

I usually let the kids choose if they want to ride on the train or the carousel, but decided not to spend the extra money this time.  The kids played for quite a while on the playground, but that was very stressful for me as they weren't playing together so I not only had to follow around Clara but I had to try to keep track of both the other kids on the large playground.  Although this day was cooler than the last time we came to the zoo it was still in the mid 80's and there were no clouds so it was quite warm.  I kept giving the kids their drinks and telling them to drink, but I didn't really pay close attention to how much they were drinking.  Before leaving I gave them each a go-gurt.  Spencer only had like one swallow and didn't want the rest (which really surprised me) so I gave the rest of his to Clara. 

After getting in the van and pulling out of the parking lot Spencer told me he didn't feel well.  I told him he was probably tired as we had been out walking around at the zoo for 3 hours.  He said he felt sea-sick.  I asked if that meant he was going to throw up and he said yes.  I quickly threw back Tessa's Hello Kitty lunchbox I had used for the drinks and go-gurts and told him to at least throw up in that.  Which he almost immediately did.  Then Tessa started gagging from the smell so we drove home on the freeway with the windows down as quickly as possible.  We had been planning on going out to eat, so I called Brodie and told him to stop for take out instead.  When we got in I had Spencer lay on the couch with a bucket and some Gatorade while I cleaned and sanitized the Hello Kitty lunchbox.  Spencer only ate a few bites of the egg drop soup and none of the Phoenix Chicken or Chow Mein or even his favorite Ham fried rice from Chin-Wah.  But he drank a bit of water and seemed to be acting himself.  Just to be safe I didn't allow him to have the playdate he wanted on Saturday, but arranged it for Monday instead, as he didn't have school Monday.  He was just fine on Saturday and none of the other kids got sick, even though Clara shared his go-gurt.  Oh, I forgot to mention that after I cleaned out the lunchbox I was putting away things and noticed he had hardly drank any water.  So I'm thinking his puking was probably related to being outside walking, running, and playing in the sun and not drinking very much.  I'll have to pay more attention in the future.