We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too
We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo

Any other Raffi fans out there?

Over spring break we made a quick overnight trip to Abilene and did all sorts of fun things. The length of the drive (2 1/2 hours) seemed really short compared to our usual destinations of Dallas or Houston. I think it was a good practice run with Genevieve - although she was the easiest one in the car. The pleas from the middle seat of "Aahver [Oliver] get out" were very sad during that last stretch.

Our itinerary included:

- Grace children's museum
- Awesome percussion demonstration at ACU by my very musical uncle, aunt and cousins
- Zoo
- Picnic
- Park

I only remembered my camera for the second day - the zoo and park. I don't know why we waited so long to take the kids to this zoo. It was great!

We got to meet my long-time friend Wes and his family there. Wes had to run back to work, so it was just a very quick "hi" with him, but Erin and their two precious girls met up with us both days and helped give us a tour since they are zoo regulars there. Erin's account of the morning can be found here. She gives a fun summary of some college rivalry pranks. Their family will be moving further away soon, so I am so thankful it worked out for us to catch up in person. Blogs work very well when meeting in person isn't possible though.

my cousin Emily and Camille soon after we arrived
Oliver looking at "the ducks" - you know...the big pink ducks that stand on one leg.

Julia and Lucy in the bird room
the highlight...GIRAFFES!
how often do you get to see the top of a giraffe?
we got to feed them cracker-like things...impressive tongue, huh?
I managed to miss a family picture of all 7 of us at both Christmas and Easter, but now we have one in front of the giraffes!
zebra
tiger playing with a ball
back of a lion - made me thankful I only have to deal with Lucy's tangles and not his

A big chubby frog...

or maybe that was from our house.

does this kid below even have hair? how similar can hair and skin color be?

how we get around these days

our kids were also amused by the hill.

yes, we are from a very flat place a group picture of the older kids (Wes and Erin's daughter Abby is on the left) just before it was time to go

the two little girls during a nap time picnic - Wes and Erin's Mackenzie is almost exactly one year older than Genevieve. AND they both have 9 letters in their names.

I wish I could bring Emily & Julia with us everywhere we go! I might have a little bit too much confidence about how manageable going somewhere crowded and taking pictures with 5 kids under age 10 is now.

I think these guys were inspired when they saw Wes in uniform and learned that he is an Air Force pilot :)

It was a perfect spring break get away for us! Thanks so, so much for hosting us Allen & Susan!