Woodland Park Zoo

Shawn came home from his trip to Las Vegas with a neat new mini video camera and some great stories of how hard he worked while there. His extensive collection of video footage from the B-52's concert hosted just for them proves it. I can't say I feel that sorry for him and his week of HARD WORK! I do have to thank to guy (whoever he is) who called Shawn to one of the hotel's bars for a beer, thus diverting his attention from the high end watch shop he was browsing at the time. All he needed was a slick salesman's "no interest/12 months" deal and Shawn would have come home with a shiny new addition to his collection.

Ian had another great day with Grandma Trish on Friday… as the picture below shows. He and Polli both get so excited when I mention "grandma's coming". He gladly waved bye to me when she showed up. I should feel sad about that, but it's really good news. We're finally getting to a comfortable place and he sure loves his Grandma Trish. There's no hiding it.

We took him to the Woodland Park Zoo on Saturday, which was a million times better than our last zoo visit to our other area zoo, Pt. Defiance. He "gets" animals more now and we're starting to see where his interests lie. He liked the snakes a lot and got super silly and over stimulated in the reptile house. He saw giraffes, elephants, gorillas, and so many more animals, I can't count. Unfortunately, my photo-ops were few, mostly because I was behind a loose 2 year old and a husband who didn't want his picture taken, but trust me... It was a great zoo. We even liked the food court, and I never thought that could be possible.

We stayed at the zoo until it closed at 6 and had Ian home and eating dinner by 7pm. It was a good day.

Ian also tried on his backpack and wore it for a whole 2 minutes before asking for "off". I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that I'll be carrying it through the airport. OK. Just this once.

Ian and Grandma Trish getting ready for a fun Friday. He stayed in his jammies long enough to show her his "motuh-bike". Diggin' grandma's new hairdo!

Walking into the zoo.

Wow. Proof that I do exist! Ian and me check out the petting zoo, which apparently now consists only of goats. When I was little, there was all kinds of animals to pet. Bummer!

He really liked the snakes

In the aviary... looks more like a tropical plant exhibit, but there were some cool birds, too.

Shawn was finally willing to pose for a picture. I was so sick of nothing but pics of the back of Ian's head with an animal way off in the distance.

The back of Ian's head...with an animal way off in the distance. The gorillas were very cool (and closer than they look).

He was not happy about the dark...and didn't connect with the turtles.

Talking to dad about hipppp-oooooos (thanks to Susan Boynton books).

Waiting at the giraffe crossing.

He liked the elephants. Sadly, we lost a baby elephant to a rare virus at this zoo not long ago.

Finally wearing his back pack! We'll see how long this lasts when it comes time to head for Arizona.