Playing Hooky

We're either the worst parents in town, or the coolest. We kept Emma out of school today. Not because there was anything in particular going on or wrong; but because Jason had the day off, the sun was shining, and we wanted to! We decided to treat her with a trip to the zoo. We didn't tell her we were going there until we were almost there. And she was all concerned that we didn't have our member passes with us. But sneaky Mommy had them in her purse, and Emma held hers the rest of the way there and repeatedly counted the number of times the word "zoo" is on the card. (There was great excitement all around when she found one hiding in the fine print!)

Unfortunately, this was apparently "Take your daycare/preschool to the zoo" day, but we weaved around them and found the quieter areas. I love going to this zoo because it's a very natural setting, for the most part, and yet you can get very close to most of the animals. Speaking of animals, here are the craziest ones I found today:

Isn't it a beautiful place? The purse Emma's wearing is her zoo purse. In it she carries her zoo treats so she can feed the animals. She's so careful to make them last through the whole zoo, that often we end up bringing some home. I love how interested she is in animals. Pretty typical, I suppose, for a little kid, yet she's so maternal and loving towards them and also interested in knowing all their specifics. We saw a baby penguin today and she was fascinated by the fact that it had fuzzy feathers instead of the darker slick ones on the adults.

I admit that we don't just go for the kids. Jason and I love looking at the animals, too. And the whole place is so peaceful (when it's not overrun by daycares and the orangutans aren't screaming at each other) that it's simply a great place to spend a couple of hours, walking around. We need to find more places like it.