Spontaneous Adventures

I broke my glasses the other day. Well, I didn't really break them. They pretty much just randomly fell apart. That's what I get for choosing cheap glasses... The good news is I have vision coverage, and I found a great new eye doctor, and I got new glasses that are uber-durable. They came in the other day, and so Lucas and I planned a morning trip to pick them up. We figured we would make it an adventure and take the kids to McDonalds (to play on their favorite playplace). Then, as we were getting ready to leave we thought it might be a nice day to visit the zoo. So we decided to extend our adventure. Then we thought it might be nice to meet up with someone. So we sent a few texts and our friends ended up being able to meet us there!

L watching the lemurs.

We watched these tigers as tiny cubs on webcam! They were excited to see them in person.

Look, mom! He's sleeping!

The zoo was busy (lots of Earth Day field trips), so we sort of went wherever the crowds were not. We really love this zoo because it is so easy to see all (or most) of it in a morning, and have a relaxing time doing so. They also have recently built and are in the process of adding new exhibits.

A new addition since our last trip - the black rhino!

Their peacocks are always wandering around. I seem to have startled this one while trying to pass it on the sidewalk (I think it might have been my blue coat - he thought I was one of them?). The result was a gorgeous display, but he was clearly ticked. This was made worse by the fact that there were tons of school children nearby who had no clue they should stay away and were petting his outstretched feathers...

He stood in my way on the sidewalk (guarding his territory from me, I assume), and I was blocked by a wall of excited kids and adults on the other, so I got separated from our group. Here is a picture of the twins (watching the peacock from a safe distance) through his feathers as I (unsuccessfully) tried to sneak by.

I finally escaped. The peacock settled down. And we went on our way.

Checking out the ostrich.

Notice how they are holding hands? It was tricky to stay on the ledge, so Allie got up and got steady and then helped Ryan up shouting, "We will work together!" Too bad the otters weren't in the display after all that teamwork...

Watching the resting arctic foxes.

We left the zoo and went to our friend's house (they live about 5 minutes from the zoo) for lunch. It was such a fun morning, and, as we were heading home, Allie dubbed our time "The Morning of 3 Adventures." McDonalds, the Zoo, and a visit to our friend's house. We ended up having another spontaneous adventure after getting home, but that is a story for another time. Hooray for spontaneous adventures and friends that join us for them!