For those of you that do not know, my best friend in the whole world (Noah), is having his tonsils removed tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. We are a little nervous, but are confident that everything will be fine. We decided to give him a "send-off" fun day today, before he spends the next week in bed with a sore throat. So, where did we decide? The best place in the world. The Zoo.
We finally arrive at the Zoo after 30 minutes in the car, wait in line, scan our tickets, walk through the gate, look at our map and ask Noah what he wants to do first. Snakes? Monkeys? Elephants? No, no no. Drum roll.........eat our lunch! That's right. He really wanted mom's cold cut turkey on star shaped bread with a tiny red apple. I guess he needed fuel before tackling the Zoo.
I have the family pose for a quick underground cave photo.
Quite honestly, I couldn't decide if I wanted to bring my camera to the zoo today or not. When you are "the camera guy", sometimes you miss out on living in the moment. You normally have to carry a heavy bag with gear, you are always worried about setting it down, breaking, getting stolen, lost and ALWAYS fidgeting with settings. Therefore, you aren't as free as when you don't bring it. But nevertheless, I decided to bring it. I am always looking for great photo opportunities of my kids. Well...listen up, all you photographers out there, the zoo is not a good place for family photo-ops. Why? Because your kids run up to every exhibit, push their face against the glass, and stare in amazement. All you are left with is staring at the back of their head. If I was on the other side of the glass, I probably could have captured some amazing facial expressions. Like when this little guy stood up and practically waved back at Noah.
Here we are, heading into Noah's favorite part of the zoo....the monkey's!!!
He ran into the building, ran up to the glass, and BOOM.....no monkey's. None. Not a single one. Seriously. Really sad. He sure did look for a long time, hoping one might appear.
He even tried looking through a telescope. No luck.
Fortunately, he was quickly distracted when he saw large primate footprints in the concrete. He was positive they belonged to "The Hulk". So, we followed them until they disappeared. When I asked where they went, Noah's answer was,"The Hulk must have magic". Sounds good to me.
Next, we stumbled on some really cool bongo's that the kids wanted to play. We let Hannah out of her stroller so I could get some photo's of them playing the drums. Ya, that didn't happen. Instead, they wanted to chase each other around the drums about a hundred times.
Any guesses why her lips and fingers are red? Hot Cheetos. About half a bag worth. Good luck taking those away from her. I am such a proud Dad. I finally have someone to eat spicy food with!
Not joking, about ten minutes later.....
Of course, it wouldn't be the zoo if I didn't show you a couple animal photo's...
What could top this day off? A warm meal at Olive Garden. Yummm.
I had to pull my camera out one last time to give my little angel some attention.
Next time you hear from us, Noah will be tonsil free! We hope he will be ear infection, and strep throat free as well.
Cheers!
