yes- another zoo trip!

As a parent, at least a parent who lives in a smallish metropolitan area like Raleigh/Durham, it's inevitable that we're going to end up taking pictures of the same child-friendly places over and over. So, we end up going to zoos, a limited number of museums, and parks repeatedly. Once in a blue moon we go to the beach, and then you get a squillion pictures of sand, water, and aquariums. So, until we take that exotic vacation to climb a child-friendly peak in the Himalayans, this is what you get to see, folks. We did our first zoo trip of 2008 last weekend. Each time we go, Sadie is more excited about the animals. She really wants to identify all the animals, and it's very important for her to try to figure out the familial relationships of the animals she sees. She often wants to know if she's seeing a "mommy and a baby" or a "daddy and a baby". Here are some pictures and videos from our trip. Unfortunately, it's next to impossible to convince a two year old to look directly at a camera when there are such distractions as polar bears and alligators!

Whew! Long drive! Am I ecstatic to be out of this cotton picking car!



Sadie has her first glimpse of the alligators.

I believe these two were deemed by Sadie to be a Mommy and a baby alligator.

I'll avoid making silly dentist jokes, but wow!



Sadie watches the alligators



In Montana, we called these cats mountain lions. Here, I guess we refer to them as cougars. Sadie said "Look at the lion- it's so CUTE!"


Here, Sadie expresses her frustration at not being able to climb these very steep rocks.



Here, Sadie is playing in the innovative "Garden Friends" playground, which looks like a field of vegetables on the vine.



Contemplating climbing an acorn squash...


And enjoying the vine slide...



Crawling up the tube slide... I'm not sure what it is about kids, but 9 times out of 10, they prefer going UP slides rather than down...

The polar bear put on quite a show for us. Sadly, this bear's backstory is not a happy one. Wilhem was one of six polar bears that US Fish & Wildlife Officials confiscated from a Mexican traveling circus that was mistreating the bears. He has put on a good deal of weight since arriving here and is in better health, though he appears to be stuck in a loop performing the same tricks over and over. I hope he's happy.



Sadie really enjoyed watching the sea lions....



That's some REALLY green, murky water.




On other news fronts, Sadie seems to finally be adjusting to her new school. She didn't cry at all the past two days upon arriving, and she doesn't follow us around saying "NO LIBRARY!" all evening. She realizes now that she's going to school, not the library, and she realizes that it can be a lot of fun playing with other kids and making messy crafts.