What do you do? You go to the zoo.

So what do you do when your house is filled with kids, no school for the day and it's chilly outside? You pack up the kitchen, the pantry, the kids and head to the zoo! Oh yeah, add an extra child or two-it makes things, well, that much more adventurous. And one more oh yeah....drive the big van knowing full well you'll have to PARK it somewhere and more than likely have to back it out of the space too. How much adventure can I take for one day?

Aaron, the greatest freshman I've met in a long time, was happy to come along with us. He even offered to push the double stroller for me too. What a sweet kid! It was nice to have another rational minded person along for the day. We headed towards the flamingo exhibit first thing. Got there....no flamingos. Too cold.

So then we headed over towards the monkey exhibits. Got there....no monkeys. Too cold or too early. However, I found 3 that were willing to act like monkeys. They did a spot on impersonation!

Thankfully as the day went on we did actually see some animals. Other than the ones in the stroller. There are certain places at the zoo that we always have to stop and take a picture at. One being this really tall, over sized, tiled throne type chair. All the kids fit in it, on it, and around it.

Then we all squished onto a bench and said cheese for photographer Aaron.

And last but not least is this bronze sculpture of a lioness and her cub. I have a picture of me when I was in like 2nd grade. Over the years the sculpture has moved to different spots around the zoo but has claimed this little spot as home for the past several years. Eric was having 'a moment' after one of his brother's got a bit bossy with him, so unfortunately he didn't make the picture.

We ended our zoo adventure with a second visit to the monkeys...success!! They were out and about and picking their noses for all the visitors to see. The kids thought it was spectacularly gross and hilarious at the same time. They all laughed and looked a lot like this-