Going to the zoo.

We have a wonderful zoo in town. Admission is even free. We took the kids several times last summer, but Ava was still a baby really. I'm pretty sure she didn't remember it at all.

We went yesterday and it was wonderful. We have family in town and so the ratio was four adults to two kids which is always nice. The weather was cloudy and cool which is actually better than blazingly hot and sunburn-inducing sunny. Neither child is taking a morning nap any more which allowed us to stay from 8am till noon for the first time.

Highlights of the day included the expression on Ava's face during the carousel ride. It wasn't her first one ever, but I think it's the only one she remembers. She loved it and the smiles and squeals of excitement were priceless.

The children were bored by most of the animals to be honest, but even the kids were excited to see the baby elephant playing in a pool of water. The water came up to about the chest of the baby elephant. The elephant was jumping up so that its two front legs were out of the water and then splashing down. It also would dive totally under the water and jump back up in a huge splash. The pool of water was extremely close to the fence so the view was perfect. You wouldn't have wanted to be closer to be honest. The whole thing couldn't have lasted more than five minutes, but it was amazing.