My Monkeys at the Zoo

WAY back at the beginning of April, Brent had his spring break. I don't think I've EVER been so ready for him to have a school break--with the exception of this upcoming summer break. It has been a ridiculously busy spring for us between soccer coaching, college classes, teaching church classes, planning parties, me starting back to work and just life in general. We were so looking forward to some uninterrupted family time. The kids were just looking forward to actually SEEING their daddy. There were three days at a time during the spring when they wouldn't even see Brent. It was so nice to slow down a bit and have some FUN! We spent the first weekday of his break at the zoo.
We had such a BEAUTIFUL day to go to the zoo. These three little monkeys were all dressed up to pose with the poseys. Don't ask me when I'll be able to actually get all three to look at the camera at the same time--probably when they're about 18!
What a cutie! Funny story about those cute sunglasses--Aunt Katie took Maura to the potty during our time at the zoo. After Maura completed her "business" Katie bent over to help with the wiping, only to have Maura's sunglasses fall off her shirt and directly into the lovely public toilet. Katie and Maura surveyed the glasses floating in the murky water, trying to decide whether to grab them out or not, only to have to automatic flush kick in and make the decision for them! Maura apparently started screaming hysterically in the bathroom stall, and Katie pretty much slunk out of the bathroom in embarrassment, thinking that someone was going to accuse her of child abuse! I had to promise Maura that we'd go buy some new sunglasses ASAP in order to get her to stop crying!
Wonder Aunt Katie--the fact that she'd even contemplate grabbing sunglasses out of a poopy toilet shows just how much she loves these kiddos! Tristan just loved having some fun times with two of his aunts--Lorie and Alexandra came along with us to the zoo.
Checking out those elephants with Aunt Lorie and Aunt Katie.
The Allen family with a new buddy. This was just before the monkey backpack catastrophe. I brought a monkey backpack leash to put on Tristan so we could keep track of him in the crowds. Once upon a time it belonged to Maura and apparently she believes it's hers still. When I strapped that leash on Tristan, she freaked out. I thought that we were done with the zoo then and there. She would NOT. CALM. DOWN. It took a long time and a lot of talking with her to get her to accept the fact that she can't act like that and demand things her way. Here's the thing--if she'd never said anything, Tristan probably would have asked to have it removed in a few minutes. With Maura screaming about how much she wanted that monkey, there was NO WAY he was taking it off! Wow, that took some serious parenting talent, but we eventually got through it and were able to enjoy our zoo experience. I loved the gorillas. This baby gorilla was four years old just like my sweet girl. We were surprised to find out that one of the gorillas was named Mara. Maura was just enchanted to think that she shared a name with a gorilla.
The fruit bat--definitely the favorite animal of the day for Maura at least. She's obsessed with the book Stellaluna at the moment and loved seeing the real animal in the flesh!
My little bat testing out how her wingspan measures up. Notice the offending monkey backpack.
The three amigos. We really had a great time at the zoo. Check out that belly! I think it's the first time it's really appeared in full on this blog!
Daddy and his big little man.
The grand finale--getting to pet a snake on our way out of the zoo. We actually purchased a membership to the zoo on the way out. You could apply your ticket purchase for that day towards your zoo membership, so I didn't see any reason NOT to spend the extra $24 for a year membership, so expect lots of zoo photos in the very new future!