What a Zoo!

Last Saturday morning I got to sleep in and later we headed to the zoo. We'd been talking about the zoo all week to get Annika enthusiastic about it and right before we got there I asked her what she was most excited to see. She said "ocean". Naturally:)

About half the universe had the same genius idea of taking their children to the zoo on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. The place was packed. I was thisss close to considering buying one of those awful leashes you see children wearing at the airports, because the little lady had her own agenda and she didn't care that mommy and daddy wanted to go feed the giraffes. 

It would have otherwise  been a regular zoo trip, except we had Annika and that's just never regular.

First, there was the lunch that consisted of some terrible zoo food. But you know how everything tastes 100 times better when you are travelling or visiting touristy spots? Apparently, Annika even thought a PBJ with ketchup was a good idea. (Did you by the way know that an alternate spelling for the word ketchup is catsup? I'm an English teacher and I just recently found out. Whoa.)

Then there were the hopping kangaroos and of course Annika started mimicking them right away. She does that hop all the time now. And the way she says "kanga-Roo" (2 distinct syllables and a very stressed American "r") is hilarious. 

Next came farm animals and I was so excited for her to pet them.  But that girl couldn't care less about the goats, because there was GRAVEL! Go figure, you never know what strikes her fancy. 

And then there was the GOOSE. On the way out, daddy had to use the restroom and Annika and I spotted a large goose just wondering around. The fearless child of mine came up to it, first just looking... Of course I was on my knees at that point taking pictures. She got closer and closer and I though, awe, how cute. She (not the goose, mind you!) started quacking and then real fast disappeared from my viewfinder. Daddy appeared out of nowhere and gave me a reproaching look. Apparently the goose was hissing at Annika and that means it was going to attack. It seems like I should feel more guilty, but it was just kind of funny.

Mommy and daddy didn't get to feed the giraffes due to the crowds but we all had fun nonetheless. When we got home, we were so wiped out; all we wanted to do was lay motionless for hours. But no such luck, what with a monkey/kanga-Roo/little monster in the house...