A Trip to the Zoo

Today was really warm out and Al only had one class in the morning so we decided to make a family trip to the zoo. It was kind of a trip of errors, but we still had fun.

For starters it took us 50 minutes to get there (normally 20) because of the crazy construction, closed freeways, mismarked signs, abscense of signs, etc., but we eventually found the zoo. When we got there we found a great parking spot outside of the lot so we got in to the zoo for free and didn't have to pay for parking!! Because of this free outing Al and I decided we could splurge on a couple of diet cokes.

Our first stop was to the seal statues and huge koi pond. Avery thought the seals were great and had fun climbing on them...until Al noticed all of the signs around asking patrons not to climb on the seals. We quickly took her off and headed on our way.

We headed up the hill to the hippos when I tripped on a pod thing that had fallen off a tree. I mananged to land on my knees, which killed, but avoided my tummy. Thank goodness. Even so I stretched a ligament or something in my lower tummy and have been sore ever since. I also have a good knot/bruise on my knee and ankle. Not to mention there were people around (embarrassing)and I also spilled my diet coke all over my jeans and jacket. One couple was really concerned, but so nice and kept looking back at me and asking if I was okay, the baby was okay, etc. I guess it's been a rough week for me health-wise.

We kind of ambled up the rest of the hill and somewhere along the trail Al proceeded to spill his diet coke. But we made it to the hippos! And they were in fine form. We saw some other popular animals (they were really active today, which made it fun). We even got to see a hyena gnawing on some form of meat/bone...ugh.

The penguin house was great as usual. Avery did her usual calling out to the penguins, squealing, giggling and all of that. She told us she wanted to go swimming with them but we told her that the water was freezing and dirty. After that Al and Avery went on the carousel. We saw a few more animals and then decided it was time to head home. As we were hiking up the hill to 'white rocket' Avery stuck her foot under the foot strap on the stroller and Al accidentally rolled over her foot. This caused some tears and some initial pain, but she walked it off. Her shoe took a beating though.

We managed to make it home without incident and have been lounging on the couch ever since. Avery said her favorite thing at the zoo is still the penguins and her second favorite part was the tiger she rode on the carousel. I think we're all tired and it might be an early bedtime. I tried to bend down to pick something up off of the floor, which started the ligament pain again, so Dr. Al has ordered me to do nothing for the rest of the day. Which gets me off the hook for dinner :)