boy day at the zoo

i love the fall!  i love sunny days just begging you to spend time outside. mason doesn't go to school on wednesdays and we had a pretty empty day and glorious weather so, of course, we went to the zoo!

we walked madelyn down to the bus stop (something new i am going to try on wednesdays) and then came home to get ready for the zoo.  we were there when it opened and were able to meander through the front part instead of racing past so that we don't eat lunch way too late like we normally do. 

first we spent a long time watching the penguins swim.  mason was waiting for one standing on the edge to jump in.  it kept leaning forward and teasing us but we never did see it dive in.  i think the boys really enjoyed going slower and getting to watch animals as long as they wanted to (madelyn likes to go by fairly quickly).

we were sort of walking with another group of moms and kids (we were just moving at about the same pace) and mason made friends with one of the little girls.  it was sort of neat to see how outgoing mason is; much more than madelyn.  madelyn likes the attention of strangers (adults and children) but mason is more direct - "hi, my name is mason.  what is your name?" or "do you want to play with me?"  he did this several times throughout the day and it just surprised me because i never noticed this about him before (maybe because he is always content to just play with madelyn).

the 'bid deal' at the zoo right now are two baby snow leopards.  they are only on exhibit for a few hours a day and we have even had to wait in line to see them before.  the funniest part is that they are right next to an exhibit with goats (i think they are some special kind - like mountain goats or something) and kids are drawn to the goats when their parents are desperately trying to get them to care about the baby snow leopards.  today the boys were more interested in the snow leopards, but maybe it was because they were playing more than usual.

baby walking up close

the mommy snow leopard

one of the babies was trying to eat the leaves off a tree.

next stop was lunch but the boys wanted to pose on the lion carousel figure since i wouldn't let them ride the real thing (honestly, i couldn't take them all on by myself even if i wanted to because they are too young to ride by themselves).  of course they each had to have a turn sitting 'up front'.

the pirate ship is a huge favorite at the zoo.  there is a slide on the other side too.  mason made friends with some other boys and played 'jake and the neverland pirates' with them for a while.  we don't always get to play here because it gets very muddy with even just a little rain.

more brotherly hugs in the pose

we had a great time.  or at least i thought so until dinner time when matt asked mason what he did today and mason said, "nothing".  even with some leading questions by matt, mason still maintained that we hadn't gone any where and had not even gotten into the car!  we were at the zoo for four and a half hours!  granted, he did fall asleep on the ride home and that might have helped him to forget.  he did finally remember (maddux had remembered and was trying to answer for him) and told dad about it with excitement.  i loved enjoying the day with my boys!  love.