the zoo

On Saturday, we went to the zoo. We had been vaguely talking about going, but hadn't made any specific plans. Saturday morning, Lara said "So, when are we going to the zoo?" I said "How about today?" So, typical for us, we decided to go at the last minute.

We were just about ready to go, and we got a call from a playgroup friend of Lara's (or would it be a friend of Anya's?) to see what we were doing, and if her son Noah could hang out with us for the day. We said, sorry, we'd love to, but we're going to the zoo, and three car seats won't fit in the back of our car.

But it really sounded like fun to take Noah along, and it seemed kind of pathetic to not even try fitting them all in the car, so I went and looked at the car, and tried moving Evan's seat to the middle, and decided maybe they would fit after all. So we called back and said we'd give it a try.

Of course, this meant that now we had a couple of toddlers that would be really disappointed if those seats didn't fit, so now they *had* to fit.

So we packed up and set off to Noah's house. Anya thought it was great that she was sitting right next to Evan, and talked to him and held his hand as we drove. We thought, hey, maybe we should have them like that all the time...

When we got there, Noah's dad tried putting in his car seat, which worked, and then I tried shutting the doors, which didn't work. Hmm. So we moved all three seats over a little until the door on the other side just barely shut, then tried again. Success! (but not by much)

Everybody in the car: (sorry, camera phone in a dark parking garage)



During the drive down to Denver, I was struck by the fact that, unlike most kids her age, Anya just doesn't talk that much. I mean, she talks. But it's not unusual to spend most of an hour long car ride in silence. With Noah, not so much. He pointed out the trucks, and the motorcycle track, and the Wal-mart, and the Home-Depot, and sang songs, and tried to engage me in conversation. It was pretty entertaining, but I've got to say, I'm okay with Anya's style of travelling, too.

Unlike many recent car trips, Evan didn't scream the whole way. Which was nice.

So we got to the zoo. Two strollers, one a double, two toddlers going to the potty. Fun, but hectic.

Another difference: Anya is pretty content to sit in the stroller most of the time, and if she does walk she rarely, if ever, walks away. Noah walks away all of the time. Runs away, really. Good thing I'm faster than a two year old. Nothing like losing someone else's kid at the zoo to ruin everyone's day.

So, in short, the zoo was fun. The kids wanted to linger for the first couple of animals, and then they figured out how it worked and got "zoo ADD". Pause 10 seconds, look, and then "I want to see another animal". Fortunately, it's a big zoo.

Here are some pictures:

Everyone watching the monkeys:



On the carousel:



Baby giraffe (one week old and taller than me):



One of Anya's obsessions is getting a wet wipe and wiping down everything she can find. Turns out, Noah has the same obsession. Here they are cleaning up a bench together (look close, they both have wipes). A picture doesn't do it justice, they were crawling all over obsessively wiping the bench, the stone, going over and wiping the windows. It was great. (kept them occupied while Lara signed up for a zoo membership)



Here they are snacking in the back of the car while Lara fed Evan:



It was a fun day.