Albuquerque Zoo

A friend of mine (who I haven't seen in a while) pointed out that she thought I was still in New Mexico because I'm so behind in posting- and I haven't been changing the dates!

The boys and I drove out to New Mexico on August 7th, and drove back home with my mom and dad on August 17th. So these last what, 10 posts, were all done in a weeks time :)

If I remember right we went to the Zoo on Friday August 13th, then went and briefly saw Old Town, and ate at an Italian Restaurant. It was a sit down, figure out what to eat, then go to the counter to order, family restaurant- GREAT food! I was having a few work related issues while we were trying to figure out what to order, so no one thought better of it when I walked to the other room on the phone and asked the lady at the counter to hold on to my card until we ordered, and no matter who tried to pay for it just run my card :) Meanwhile my sister and Dad were arguing over who was going to pay for it, and my sister ended up thinking she had won, that is until the lady handed me the receipt to sign ;) The really funny part of the story is that after we had our fill of food my dad went to the counter and ordered cookies and ice cream for everyone. Unknowingly my sister also went and ordered brownies and ice cream for everyone. We ended up having 11 deserts that fed two each (and there were 12 people there)! Ugh, we were so stuffed, lol! My kids actually ended up saying they didn't want anymore ice cream!!! Sad to say, we left unfinished brownies, cookies and ice cream at the table... haha.

OK, back to the Zoo :)

We were waiting in line to pick up a few wagons when Jeremiah started scratching. This is not at all unusual for him and his dry skin, but he seemed to be scratching more then usual, so I asked him to stop and said he looked like a monkey.
Josh joined in the fun and they both pretended to be monkeys, great face Josh :D

We stopped and saw the crocodiles, which really don't do anything- very boring to watch.
It was fun however to try and line up kids to see how many it would take to be as long as a crocodile :)
And poor Matthew is already sick of me taking pictures, haha.

Jeremiah and Matt found a nice shady spot to view the polar bear, that only Ben seemed interested in. Another great face Matthew!

All of the kids took turns pulling the wagon, sometimes even fighting over who got to pull. Even Benjamin gave it a great try, yelling at us if we tried to help...pulling Josh, Jeremy and Spencer- the biggest kids we had!

I stole this picture from my mom (clearly, because you can see me taking a picture with my camera :P ). The lion was directly above my dad chewing on a bone... oogie.

And this is my shot... Like I said, it's a little creepy to walk under, but very cool at the same time.

Then we made it to the playground. This water feature is something the Fort Worth Zoo REALLY needs to invest in. It was a fantastic way to cool down! The boys played here almost the rest of the time we were there. Some of these pictures I stole from my dad, since he stayed with my boys the longest, because I was with Ben who was less then interested in getting wet- but that's just Ben.

As time wore on, boys will be boys- and do what boys find the funniest.

They still laugh when they see these pictures...

You should have heard Matt, using his loudest voice, proclaim "It got me in the peanuts!!". Proud mommy moment.
Another fantastic face Joshua...

And this is where I was with Ben, who absolutely loves slides- but there are only so many pictures you can take of the same event :)

Then Nana stole Ben, while I had to deal with a bathroom issue and a certain child :S She took him to see his very favorite animal... the elephant!

The Zoo announced it would soon be closing, so we rushed through to see what we could before they kicked us out. Unfortunately most of the animals were being put away, so there wasn't much to see :(
Joshua was mad at me here because I wouldn't let him put on his shoes, he was dripping wet! (Don't you love the matching shirts?? We purchased them from the Bandelier gift shop, 4 for my boys, and 1 for Spencer)

The mighty Jeremiah!