The Babies' First Real Zoo Trip

On Friday Darin was able to get off of work a few hours early so we decided to take advantage of that and explore DC a little more. We loaded the kids in the minivan and headed off to the zoo. It was a free zoo and what can be better than that? It was so much fun to take the kids to the zoo and show them all of them all of the animals. We would wheel them around to the exhibits and you could certainly tell all of the animals they really liked. They really enjoyed the monkeys and the birds. There was this one little monkey in particular that would hop around from branch to branch that Dallin loved he would squeal when he saw the little monkey. It was so cute!

There was one bird in particular that was a Stanley Crane that we passed. That cute bird followed our stroller from one end of the pen to the other. Darin noticed it following us and walked back and it still followed. He ran from one end of the pen to the other and it ran alongside the stroller. He was the cutest bird. It reminds me of a story that my dad tells about a time when he was jogging along the side of the road (he is an avid runner--has run the Boston marathon etc.) and a sandhill crane flew down by him and literally ran with him for a couple of blocks.


Another time we were in a bird habitat where you could go into a room that had live birds all around flying in trees and such. I thought it was the perfect time to grab a handful of cheerios and give the babies a snack since it was so nice and cool in there. All of a sudden I found myself surrounded by birds. Not just little tiny flying birds, big walking birds. I didn't even fathom birds like that being in there! A couple of them even became so daring as to come really close to the babies. They had big beaks and I was afraid for the kids. Darin and I had to physically shoo the birds away and we quickly left that building.
The last exhibit that we wanted to see was the giant panda habitat. I was looking forward to seeing a live panda. We looked in all of the outdoor cages and didn't see even one sign of a panda. I gently suggested (ha ha) that Darin ask someone where they were. He did and we found out that they were located inside of a panda habitat since it was so hot outside. We followed the masses to an Asian looking building (by this time I was nearly limping because we had been walking around so long). I went in with so much anticipation. I walked up to the enclosure and gingerly looked in. I saw a huge mound of bamboo and right next to the bamboo was a small animal that looked unconscious. It was draped over a rock in the strangest position. It was completely spread-eagled. I numbly mumbled, "I think the dang thing is dead! Let's go."
After we left the building Darin grabbed me by the arm and pulled me under a nearby tree. "Honey I think that you really scared those kids in there. After you said that comment about it being dead a couple of them looked like they were about to cry." Whoops. Open mouth, insert foot.

Aside from almost being eaten alive by blood-thirsty birds, and freaking out poor innocent children, we had a great time at the zoo. The babies thoroughly enjoyed watching the animals and I am convinced that Dallin can now say the word bird--even though it sounds like diid. What a great time we had.