Zoo trip

The boys had today off school for Rosh Hashanah and I decided we should take a trip to the Maryland Zoo since the weather was lovely and, once again, these types of outings will be rare pretty soon.  We had kind of a rough start to the day with a fair amount of whining and bickering amongst the kids.  Sometimes it seems like the harder I try to make plans for a great outing (zoo trip with picnic lunch including special treats!) the more likely it is that one or more of the kids is going to have attitude issues.  I kept thinking that we could have just as easily stayed home today and had a regular day, or a "let's catch up on chores day", and then I would kind of understand the whining, but when there is whining before, during, and after a pretty fun and unique outing, I'm always a bit puzzled!  I'm sure the kids sensed my low whine tolerance level today, maybe even subconsciously, and pounced on it.  Oh well!  Fortunately, it was pretty manageable on the whine-o-meter and we all had an enjoyable day after all.

We really wanted to be able to feed the giraffes today, and Peter even wore his giraffe hat that he just received from Great Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Brian so he could "show it to the Phoebes at the Zoo", but the giraffes weren't hungry every time we passed by their enclosure.  The zoo really wasn't crowded today, and we headed right to the giraffe feeding area when we arrived (so fairly close to when the zoo opened), but the giraffe in the enclosure was on the opposite side from the feeding station and the keepers kind of shrugged and apologized and said the giraffes just weren't interested in the acacia branches.  Oh well!  It will be a good reason to return and try again in the future :).

Other than that, we're all doing pretty well!  I am 38 weeks today and am getting more excited and anxious (I kind of would like skip the whole labor and delivery part and just be unpregnant with a healthy baby in my arms :)) but I'm doing OK.

Jack says "Hi Cheetah!" and the cheetah says "Hi Snack!"

Jack was excited to snap this photo of a rare Thomas in the wild.

Jack took this one of the warthog and his crazy hair-do.

Another Jack snapshot of Davy enjoying his cookie bar.

Non-hungry giraffe

Another by Jack!