The Zoo

 With just six months to go before Noah can officially join us in the temple, we decided to close this season of life with a bang and renew our Omaha zoo memebership again!  It has been our favorite way to include some fun in our trips to the temple, besides Zesto's, that is. Now we've got 12 months to enjoy the zoo whenever we head to Omaha! 

In classic "things aren't as easy as they once were" fashion, we had to take two cars to accomodate an evening babysitting job that Leah didn't want to turn down.  But we still had plenty of time to check out some of our favorites for the first time in a few years! Including exploring the desert dome- 

recreating this classic cactus photo- 

heading down to the depths of the Kingdom of the Night- 

and exploring in the aquarium- 

This cute shark smile!

These beautiful girl smiles!

Contemplating the fish patterns- 

and checking out the Lied Jungle- 

This baby monkey stole our hearts!

Bah, these four monkeys steal my heart every day. They make everything such fun!

Excuse me while I squeeze the love out of you. 

That was all we had time to explore before it was time for lunch and a quick baseball game.  Don't let those gray clouds fool you- it was SO hot without a raindrop in sight. 

After that we said goodbye to Daddy and Leah and the rest of us headed over to the much-smaller-than-it-used-to-be Kids Kingdom for some sliding and running and budgie adventuring. Our parakeet guide was just like Napoleon Dynamite. 

Then over to the orangutangs and gorillas- 

This was one dramatic boi!

Smoudler!

It was seriously so! hot! outside, so we wrapped up the day with an IMAX movie

before heading over to the temple for some quiet and peaceful service. Daddy stayed on the phone with Noah, who watched a movie in the car. 

Then off to Zesto's and back home to Iowa, with a tornado warning following us the whole way home.

  Like so many things, going to the zoo now is much easier- in some ways- than it was when everyone was little.  No strollers, no diaper bags or changes, no meltdowns and no naptime to work around.  But in other ways, accomodating everyone's schedules gets harder as we all get older.  As it should be, there is more going on now that prevents us from being together all the time.  Either way, it was still just as fun.  We decided the zoo is a great place for everyone to enjoy, from little familes to dates to pushing grandparents around in wheelchairs.  According to Noah, the zoo is always awesome and definitely not boring!