A day at the zoo

Memaw, Lakin & Spongebob


Dawson & Spongebob
Lakin & Memaw, falling down in the desert

Lakin and a meercat..look close, you can kind of see how it's sitting like a human. All he needs is a beer,T.V. and remote
Gavin in the desertLakin, chasing some sort of lizard

RRRRRRR.........

Gavin on the carasoul

ooohh.. here comes a shark!
Dawson, following the 2 finger rules

she got it!

Lakin and Dawson REACH>>>>>

here fishy, fishy, fishy..... Gavin touching the SHARK!!!
dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.... ( the jaws theme)
go ahead Lakin, touch it!

Oh, the Indianapolis Zoo..... Today was actually the perfect day for a trip to the zoo. The weather was wonderful! However, I think that every other person currently in central Indiana, had similar feelings. I knew that it would be busy, but this was ridiculous! Every camp group, church, YMCA, large Mexican clusters, etc... were there today. Big brothers and Big Sisters, wonderful idea, but not as a bus load to the zoo. I thought that was like a one-on-one thing? And I have nothing, NOTHING, against people of color ( that's politically correct, right?), but when you get, like, two bus loads of kids between the ages of 8-14, supervised by more kids between the ages of 14-17...... OMG!!! Ever want to see what happens when you push a whole bunch of kids into the lions cage??? I mean seriously. How much sense does it make to let kids be in charge of other kids? Not one adult with the whole group. There was actually one group with two girls as the leaders, walking in front, each sharing an ear piece to a MP3 player. Umm, does anyone see the problem with this? All they cared about was the music, not about the little gangsters(J/K) running around behind them. That, of course, was just one of the many large groups joining us for a fun day of animal sight seeing. There was also a camp David? Didn't realize they existed, Jewish, maybe? The little boys had those little hat things on their heads, that's Jewish, right? Anyway, there were a lot of them, too, but they at least were well behaved and led by adults. At least someone ( other than me) has some sense. So we start off at the oceans, but quickly detour because the line was a tad crazy. Head to the Sea Lions and Seals, which I really enjoy, but who weren't making any noise. That's okay, I did it for them. I really do a great impression. The kids enjoyed it, they are to young to be embarrassed by me yet, someday:) Then on to the Walruses. or Walrus. I think last year there were two, but maybe they just fused together to make one giant one. This thing was a monster!! The glass was pretty dirty and the beast wasn't really interested in swimming. Then the workers lured him away so they could clean the glass. You would think they would do that after 5:00? We walked through the aquarium, you know, the part where the dolphins can swim over you?, but there was a show starting, so there were no little fishies. Then we found a potty and watched some monkeys. Then of course we had to buy tickets for the new Spongebob 4-D ride. Oh, yeah, no regular 3-D for us! and the roller coaster, and the pony rides, and the carousel... We all did the Spongebob thing, which was pretty neat ( I don't think mom and Lakin liked it much, it was pretty jerky), Gavin was cracking up the whole time. I looked over at one point, and Lakin was just slipping right out of the seat. Oops!! Memaw was really into the flying, runaway pickle. Mommy saved the day! I suppose the drop wouldn't have been to awful, but not fun for Lakin, I'm sure. I guess that's why under 38" has to be sitting with an adult. ( which she was, just not with super observant mommy). Then off to the rollar coaster for me and Dawson, which was " totally awesome", in Dawson's words. Then we were off in search of giraffes, hoping to feed them, but being 30 minutes to early ( we missed our dolphin show, BTW, Lakin didn't want to go). On to the Hippos, which we got a nice rear view of, then more Zebras ( did I forget to mention zebras earlier?) , the pink bottom monkeys ( which Gavin really enjoys), the elephants ( which I think are boring), the sleeping kangaroos, and the bird cage, where all of the kids got to feed the birds and mom got pooped on. They really liked that ( the feeding, not the pooping).

By this time, Gavin was VERY antsy about the gift shop....Lakin had already picked out what she wanted at one of the little booths, but I convinced Gavin to wait until we got to the gift shop. Lakin got her "noculars", which she decided one day last week that she " really needed". ( Binoculars, by the way) It also came with a "spy glass" which she is going use to watch the airplanes at memaws. Somewhere before all of this, we went into the desserts, which was REALLY crowded with before mentioned thugs ( j/k again). So it was really hard to actually see anything. The snakes were a hit for Gavin, though by this time Lakin had to potty, so we sort of rushed through them. Speaking of potty... the bathrooms there could use a little work. I thinksomeone miised the toilet entirely and just peed right on the floor in front of it, instead. This of course is the stall that I get. So here I am, trying to hold up my pant legs so they don't get infested with stranger urine, change Maxi Pads cousin, Panty Liner, and kind of sort of hold myself off the seat ( which failed, I would rather save my pants). Then,there is no toilet paper. Of course there isn't. So it's the shake, clench, shake method today. Anyway, enough about my bathroom break, just trying to hit all the stops:) After the bird cage, I believe we went over to the petting area, but that line was REALLY long, too. ( good, it always smells real bad in there). On to the carousel, then to get something cold to drink along with some candy bars for all the kids ( after waiting in line behind behind all of our pals from the hood j/k, again). Then came the forests, which included the tiger, more monkeys, bald eagle, the new koala exhibit ( let me tell you, THAT was exciting..(yawn) ) , and then out of the forest. We ( well, I) wanted to go back through the oceans since we vetoed it before, and this time it was perfect. Hardley anyone was there. Note to self: always visit Oceans at end of trip. We went straight to the shark petting pool, which is a favorite of mine. The boys stuck their hands right in and started touching, the sharks were being very friendly. It's almost like they WANTED to be touched. Lakin was hesitant at first, but after that first touch, she was hooked! The anoncer said they were closing in 20 minutes, so we had to drag Lakin, who was suddenly wearing pants with bricks in them, away from the sharks ( but she did get a shirt that said " I touched a shark at Indianapolis Zoo"). Then it was on to the gift shop and then to the car. It was a pretty good zoo trip, I think. The kids acted like they enjoyed the animals more this year ( except for Dawson who informed us every 10 minutes he was tired of walking), so we spent more time at each area, actually LOOKING at the animals. Anyway, here are the pictures ( well some, I took about 200! but deleated quite a few), enjoy our trip to the zoo. I'm sure you would all have rather been there than at work, he-he!

Aren't the Lemurs C-U-T-E!!!!Dawson, looking at something in the desertCarasoul time!!I forgot to mention earlier that we fed the ducks for about an hour. Not exagerating. We could have saved a lot of money and went to a lake and fed the ducks for free! These ducks are pretty comfortable around humans though, they were eating right out of the kids' hands! The turtle even took food right from mom's fingers. Of course, we had to go and buy crackers just for them , but they had fun with it. Next time I know to just go find a pond with some hungry duckes in it!DawsonLakin, duck watching

Lakin, Dawson, and Gavin