spontaneous zoo trip

i thought it might be nice to take all four to the zoo for lunch this week since it will be a while before madelyn is able to do this with us once school starts unless we go on a weekend. i was planning on tomorrow but for some reason i decided that i was feeling up for it today (regardless of the fact that i had a lot to do at the house).  i had a bad feeling when i pulled up to a line at the gate an hour after the zoo had opened.  yep.  it was "community day" and the zoo was packed.  obviously, i had not gotten that memo and considered just going to the park for lunch instead.  it was a nice day, the kids were in good spirits and we were already there so i decided to give it a try - we could always leave.

we ended up having a nice time and stayed for a few hours.

mason was very excited that he was tall enough and strong enough to finally 'flap' the condor wings on his own.

madelyn asked to take a picture with the bears and her brothers.  she and mason did fine but when maddux tried to get in on the action we had some trouble with everyone trying to be on the bears and look at the camera (they aren't really made for climbing and the boys kept sliding down).

and this is maddux right before he landed in the mud - we left shortly afterwards.

i am glad that we stayed and ate lunch.  the zoo is being renovated and adding a new exhibit so some of the paths were closed and there was doubling-back to get to the cafe, but the crowd was manageable (once we got past the viewing of the baby snow leopards which was a 20 minute wait at least).  going to miss bringing mads, but it will be fun as a 'boys' outing during the week.  love.