Penguins and Jaguars and Monkeys, Oh My!

Last week we went to the Zoo! My best friend Regan was home for a visit, on a break from grad school in Hawaii. Last year, she gave me my Zoo membership for my birthday. I wanted to go with her while she was home this summer and it worked out great. We ended up getting down to the zoo in the afternoon, so soon after we arrived, we were joined by Steve after he got off work. So it was Regan, Steve, the kids and me. Good thing, because with a two year old and a newborn and the accompanying two strollers, we needed an extra pair of hands. :-) Regan is a good photographer and has a much higher quality camera than we do, so I told her I really wanted some cute pictures of Jason as well as our whole family. Well, the picture of all four of us didn't happen, but there are some other cute pictures! There are a few off our camera too, you'll probably be able to guess which ones.

Jason with his face all squished against Mommy's shoulder.

Regan helped Jilly so she could see the pudu.

The jaguar was right there and Steve got a good shot of it.

The colobus monkeys. I think we saw 4 or 5 of them in the whole enclosure. Here are two of them.

My new favorite picture of me and Jason. There are very few pictures of me with my kids, because I'm usually the one taking the pictures. And the last one of just Jason and me was also his very first picture and we were still kinda attached (the one from his birth). So I really love this one.

The gorillas.

We were looking for lemurs.

Jilly liked to walk around a lot more, and we let her this time, since there was one of us to chase after her and the other two could push the strollers.

Must. Buckle. EVERYTHING! She can't handle leaving anything unbuckled, I swear.

Such a good picture of the penguins and Jilly. She LOVED this exhibit. She just stood there and giggled her head off, because there were two specific penguins that were swimming and would come right up to her face. Then they'd leave and come back. It was awesome.

Daddy lifted her up so she could see above the glass to the penguins on land.

There were lots of them up there!

She really tried to climb over the glass, so she could go swimming. That girl loves water!

Penguins love water too.

A much needed juice break.

I just have to point out here, isn't her hair super cute? I thought she looked quite adorable in her red dress and pigtails and cherry clip. ;-)

Not to forget about this little guy, of course! He slept for a good chunk of the trip, but woke and needed to streeeeeetch!

We got to see not one but two tigers out AND moving this time. Crazy, I think we've only actually seen a tiger one other time.

The emus. We came here after Willawong Station, where you can feed birds. So these were e bit of a letdown.

At this point Jason needed to eat, so we went to the carousel while he nursed. Jilly loved it!!!

And Jason got milk-drunk. I love it when babies are like this. :-)

After this, we were running out of time, so we did a quick loop of the Northwest Trail, with all the bears, otters, elk and the like. Honestly, I don't care that much about them. They're boring to me. Jilly was melting down by this point, and Regan needed to go meet her parents, so we all left.

It was a lot of fun to go to the Zoo! We love it so much. It was the first big outing with two kids and went fairly well. Gives me hope that someday I'll be able to take both kids by myself. But I'm not holding my breath for anytime soon. ;-)