Our Trip to the Zoo

Yesterday, I asked Maureen how she felt about going to the zoo if the day wasn't too hot today.  She thought it was a grand idea.  Actually, she was thinking of taking the boys to the beach, but I put my idea forth prior to her talking to me about hers.  That teaches us the following:  If you snooze, you lose!

So, we made the mistake of telling John that we were going to the zoo and we basically had to sell the idea to him.  How do you ask?  We told him there was a train.  After he heard that, he just wanted to talk about the train at the zoo.  Nicholas was just happy to be going anywhere.  He's a good little guy like that.

On our drive over, John asked if we were going to drive by the big fountain and the red train.  The boy has the memory of an elephant.  He forgets nothing.  We drove by the fountain at Forrest Lawn and then we drove by the red train at Travel Town.

We get to the zoo and the boys are all skittish because they don't know what to think.  We rent a double stroller and John doesn't want to ride in it.  Nicholas enjoyed it until John decided to join him.  At that point, he decided that he had to get out of the stroller.  Lesson for the day, get two single strollers.

The first animals we see are flamingos.  All Nicholas could say was, "DUCK!  DUCK!  DUCK!"  Apparently, all birds are ducks to him.  John was a bit more subdued and liked looking at the flamingos.  After the flamingos, he started asking about the train incessantly.  It got to the point where we abandoned all hope of seeing any animals and went to find the little train.

When we got to the train, the ride operator told us that it was closed until the end of the bird show.  To kill time, we decided to see the bird show.  Neither boy appreciated it.  They both were freaked out by the birds flying over the audience.  John was freaked out by the carved wooden bird on the stange.  He kept on calling it the Big Angry Bird.

Sadly, we left the bird show and decided to leave the zoo since both boys were getting restless.  Nicholas did not want to part with his spacious stroller and John was in tears over not riding the train.  The train was you standard carnival ride.  Oh well, it was a good experiment and we plan to try it again when it isn't too hot and the boys are a little older.

On a funny note, John decided that we were going to go to a park.  He said, "We are going to the park.  We'll take our new green stroller and walk there.  Ok?  Is that a plan?"  We had to break the news to him that we only rented the stroller.  Still, it was rather spacious and Nicholas just loved lounging in it.