Zoo!

Summer is dwindling....how sad!  We've done a lot of fun things while I've been off work, but we had our hearts set on getting Natalie to the zoo this summer.  Mark has been working some weird shifts at work, so he ended up having a Friday off.  We decided to get up early and head to the zoo before it got too hot.

Natalie was perfectly content to ride around in her stroller and look at all the animals.  She pointed and babbled and laughed.  We named the animals as we went and she made the animal noises, too.  We dodged from shady spot to shady spot, drank plenty of ice water, and it really wasn't as hot as we thought it would be.

Hands down, the absolute coolest thing at our zoo is the polar bear.  I was too enamored with watching him to actually take any pictures of him, I guess!  I did get this picture of Daddy and Natalie in front of his home.  He was putting on such a show!  Belly flopping and back diving and putting his face against the glass to look at the kids.  And he was HUGE!  I could have skipped the rest of the zoo and watched that big guy all day.

Alas, there were other things to see and do...

Watching the tigers....as soon as Natalie saw them she pointed and said "Rrrrooooaarrrr".

Kangaroos....one of the Mommies had a bunch of babies in her pouch!

She wanted to pet the sheep, but this guy was a bit timid.

Merry-go-round....her favorite thing the whole day, I think!

Looking at the lazy lions through the glass.

She also really liked the gorillas and the seals, but I didn't get pictures of all that.
By lunchtime, we were all hot and tired, so we headed home to get some lunch and cool off.  It was a fun morning at the zoo!