The Zoo!

With all the working I've been doing recently, I decided it was time to take my boys on a momdate, to do something fun, away from home and our usual routine.  What better place than the zoo?!  

We hustled up to get there right at 10 when the zoo opened, to try and catch some of the animal feedings.  Elephants (a big hit with Gus) were at 10, so we started there. 

impossible to get 2 smiling faces looking at the camera at the same time

I promised Arjen we'd go see the zebras after the elephants.  Despite their lack of doing much of anything, he was not disappointed.   I even got him to take his hat off in hopes of seeing his whole face for a snapshot!

Then it was on to Gus's favorites, the Giraffes.  (I think we actually paused for the Camels in between, but managed to not take any pictures of them.  Oh well.)  The Giraffes were the next animals to be feed, so we got to see a little of that.

This guy was being fed whole bananas.  I never before had thought about animals eating the whole fruit, skin and all!

Gus decided he'd try to feed some leaves off the bush to the Giraffes

We did see many other animals that day, but at Arjen's request, we zoomed through the rest to get to the little train that is just outside the park.  We had a couple of tickets to the rides, so I told the boys we could ride the train (which Arjen kept asking about pretty much since after he had seen the animals he wanted - Zebras).  They've got free-roaming (within a large fenced area) Emus and Wallaroos that you get to see on the train ride.  This particular Emu decided to stand in front of the exit gait for the train, so we got to sit there fore about 10 extra minutes.  At lunch time, and nap time, and prime kids-can't-sit-any-longer-but-we're-not-allowed-to-get-off-the-train-time.

 We survived the wait with minimal problems, and I even managed to sneak in a little selfie.  :)

After the train ride, the boys used up their remaining tickets on the car ride.

Needless to say, staying at the zoo past normal nap time was sufficient to wipe both kids out for the ride home.