the zoo: take two

A few weeks ago Drew and I took Asher to the National Zoo with the hopes that we could have a fun family day together.  You might remember that it started with vomit and ended with a monsoon.

Not ideal.

When Drew's parents came into town for his cousin's wedding last weekend we decided to give the zoo a second chance.  We made a few important changes to the plan and it was those, I think, that made all the difference.

For one, we went on a Monday morning.  Genius move.  The zoo was really empty and since it was such a cool morning the animals were {almost} all up and about.  Yay!

The other thing we did was take some grandparents.  Asher loves his grandparents and couldn't wait to point out all the animals to Grandma and Grandpa! 

Look!  Elephants!  Did you see the elephants?

 

How about the gorilla?  Did you see the gorilla?  He goes like this - {enter: King Kong imitation}

Asher also finally got to see his beloved pandas.  Have I mentioned how much he l-o-v-e-s pandas?  There might be a "nanda" or 2 at our house.

Can you see him here?  This panda was a little shy...

The last time we were at the zoo they were inside, sleeping.

This time they were outside...sleeping.  Oh well.

Ash definitely understood that they were "nandas!  nandas!" - maybe it was because they were outside?  At any rate, he was pretty darn excited.  Love that!

While we were walking from one exhibit to another I saw this bronze statue and asked Ash if he would like to pet the "kitty" - he jumped at the chance.

We also wandered over to the "farm" area and saw the prettiest cows ever...eating a pumpkin.

I thought it was pretty hilarious that these goats lounge on the same playground equipment that Asher enjoys.  Who knew - goats like those wobbly bridges too! 

Asher enjoyed peaking at them.  :-)

After wandering over to the chicken coop, Asher looked through this window for less than a second before he turned around and started signing "eat".  I asked him if the chickens made him hungry and he said "YES!" Ha ha - who knows what goes on in his head sometimes!  

We got some much needed {demanded, really} lunch and headed home for a long nap.  All in all this visit to the zoo was hands-down our best ever.  I think we've got this thing figured out now.  Who wants to come next time?!

Asher can show you all around.