"The Zoo, Yay!"

That was the reaction we got from Nathan when we told him we were getting ready to leave for the zoo this past weekend. He was soooo excited to see the animals and specifically said he wanted to see the tiger and lion.

But let me back up. The whole reason we went to the zoo was because Jimmy's cousin George (or, JR) and his wife and daughter came back up to Katy to visit us again before their second daughter is born in late November. The weekend also happened to be Darlene's birthday, so they wanted to do a little more than just sit around our house and shoot the breeze all day. Viviana (their adorable daughter) had never been to the Houston Zoo, so that was first choice of activities.

The weather was terrible Friday night and didn't look to be much better Saturday morning, but we kept an eye on the radar and ultimately decided that it was going to be dry enough to go. Turns out we for there about an hour too early and had to do some inside exhibits for a while to kill time waiting for the drizzle/rain to stop. The day stayed overcast and cool even though there was 1000% humidity and sticky, so the animals were out and pretty active. Well, except Jonathan the Lion who was taking his usual belly up nap by the glass of his exhibit area. The tigers were feeling particularly amorous and I was thankful my kids are both too young to ask uncomfortable questions about why the boy tiger started to, um, wrestle with the girl tiger.

From the cats we circled around to the African side of things and saw the chimpanzees, rhinos, and giraffes. Nathan got to color a rhino mask and take a picture with a rhino character. At first he didn't want to get near the guy, but when he saw his cousin go fearlessly up to him and get a hug and a picture he wanted to do the same thing. He hesitated again until Mommy went and stood by the rhino, but he still wanted to keep an eye on it just to make sure. Poor guy.

The highlight of the day for Nathan was getting to feed the giraffe! We always go and see the giraffes, but we usually aren't there during feeding time. However, this time we made it and there happened to be a very cooperative giraffe at the fence with a few other patrons. Since the line was so short we went ahead and paid the $5.00 for three lettuce leaves (what a racket!). I was afraid he wouldn't actually want to feed them once he got so close, but Daddy held him and he gave them to the giraffe with no problem. He was so excited to tell me and is sure to hold up three fingers when telling anybody about the experience.

By that time Livy was tired and hungry (weren't we all) so I stopped at the cafe right by the giraffes to feed her and sent the boys off to the carousel. By the time they were done with that Nathan was tired and ready to go home. Knowing that he would fall asleep on the way home we all got a quick lunch before heading out. He was asleep before we hit the freeway.

We had a fun but exhausting weekend (for this mama anyway)!