zoo

zoo

Saedi is EIGHT today!

Posted on May 24, 2010 by wadmanclan

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!

I tried to talk her into turning six again instead and she could stay young forever, but she wasn’t going for it. She insisted she had to get older, not younger.

We had planned on taking the kids to the zoo for Saedi’s birthday. About a week before, we checked the weather and it was supposed to be the only nice day in a 10 day stretch. Funny thing about the weather, it changes the closer you get to the day. The night before was predicting rain throughout the day, so we talked about going to the movies instead.

This morning we decided to ask Saedi what she wanted to do, go to the movies or walk around the zoo in the rain. She picked the zoo. We went armed with raincoats and umbrellas but it actually ended up being a fairly nice day, the rain clouds broke up before we got to Seattle so it was just cold.

The first animal we came across was the peacock that wanders around the zoo. It was showing off for a small crowd, so Saedi and Gavin climbed on a nearby rock to get a better look. The zoo handler that was with it said it was waiting for someone to feed it popcorn. When it didn’t get any food it turned around, shook it’s feathers and screeched at the crowd. This scared the wits out of Gavin. He turned to cower away but couldn’t find me or Nate so he went toward Saedi instead.

We saw lots of animals, and had a very good time.

Saedi had also picked to go to Applebee’s for her birthday dinner, but we went there for lunch before the zoo instead. After the zoo we picked up the birthday cake and some chinese, went home and ate and then had cake and presents.

Most of my birthdays growing up I got a picture of me talking to grandma and grandpa on the phone, this year I got one of Saedi doing the same thing.

This was what she got.

This was her “big” gift from mommy and daddy this year. She is a growing geek after all.

Categories: birthdays, Saedi, zoo | Leave a comment

It’s Raining! It’s Pouring! – Let’s go to the Zoo!

Posted on January 1, 2010 by wadmanclan

Saedi and Gavin earned these from the county library, during the summer reading program.

Since I was so proud of them for earning the tickets, I wanted them to be able to use them. We didn’t seem to have time to go before, and today was the last day the tickets were still good. So, even though it was raining, we went to the Pt Defiance Zoo and Aquarium today. It was pretty fun and not at all crowded. We dug out all the rain gear and brought layers in case it was cold too. Gavin would wear his rain boots every single day if I let him. Saedi and Gavin both have their own umbrellas so it’s “fun” when they get to use them. I also have a pretty nice rain cover for the jogging stroller, so we were all set.

Going to the zoo in the rain really isn’t as bad as it sounds – most of the animal viewing areas are sheltered so you just walk between them under an umbrella, and the animals were active because it wasn’t hot or cold. Plus the umbrellas make for some fun photos.

It’s not a very large zoo but it’s still pretty good. We saw meerkats,

walruses,

sea otters,

polar bears (I love how these ones turned out! The photos are taken through the glass),

(The pictures are not as nice from here on out. I didn’t charge the battery for the new camera before we went, since it was sort of a last minute trip, and it died. So the rest are with the cell phone.)

river otters,

a barn owl,

elephants,

and gibbons. The gibbons were fun. The play area that they have has swinging handles all over the building part, including right in front of the viewing windows. They kept swinging over to look at the people, like we were there for them to watch and not the other way around! I had the stroller turned slightly away from the window and it seemed that the white one kept trying to see what was in it. Solvei and Nels loved watching them too, they would smile when the “monkeys” were swinging around.