The Fab Four at the San Diego Zoo

Through our homeschool academy we were able to visit the San Diego Zoo for $7.00 a person! Now at that price they would only allow one adult per family. Brad could have joined us at regular price (nearly gasping for air here as I remember how much the admission is), but he declined as this week was a busy week for him. Well, because I border between crazy and adventurous I took them all by myself. There were varying opinions on when to leave the house in order to get to San Diego on time, so I left the house at 7:00am. If we were not at the gates with our group by 10am there was a chance we would lose our group discount, so getting there on time was my highest priority. Well, that and coffee. Anyway... I leave at 7:00am and get there an hour early! Even with the coffee stop I was forty minutes early. 

After our two hour car drive we waited for another forty minutes just to get through the gates as our very large group got themselves situated.

The first place our family ran to was the Reptile House. And I do mean we ran. After nearly three hours of driving and waiting for things to start the children were bursting out of their skin to get somewhere, so they ran to the first exhibit in the area. I was running, because I had just had coffee and because my goal was to arrive with the four children and leave with four children, so I had to keep up.
We were just in time to watch some lizards be hand fed escargot.

As you can see the children were fascinated. Somewhat repulsed, but overall fascinated.

Simon is just a wee bit excited, right?

After we ran to the Reptile House we ran to the Turtle House.

Simon was a bit confused, I think. We hadn't reached the monkey exhibits quite yet.

The kids pine away as they watch some lucky (and possibly rich) playgroup that had bought an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour.

It was around this point that I texted Brad with the message: When our yearly passes to Legoland expire we should get passes to the San Diego Zoo.
I don't remember his response exactly, but it wasn't the preferred response of, "Oh, honey, please feel free to purchase the passes now." I think it had to do with something like, "We'll see", or something overly practical like, "Didn't it take you two hours to get there?"

Kaeley is getting quite particular on when and how I'm taking a picture of her and where it's going to go, so the fact that she posed for a silly picture might make this picture my favorite of all time. I thought about making it my Facebook profile picture, but if she ever found out she might hate me for life. I'll have to enjoy it privately. Maybe in the form of a large over-the-mantel piece?

Alynna has a desire to take a picture with every large statue we pass, so here's our first in the series.

Somehow my children's stomachs are outgrowing their little Tupperware boxes. I had spent nearly half the day before slicing, dicing, and cooking the picnic breakfast, morning snack, picnic lunch, and afternoon snack. I was literally carrying pounds of food and water with me and you know what? Fifteen minutes after lunch they were hungry.

Alynna with a lizard statue.

The Fab Four with a hippo statue.

Alynna and Nathan and a little girl we don't know on yet another large statue.

Leaf-cutting ants. Simon kept shaking his fingers at them and saying, "No. No. No. No.... Blech!"

Simon has a very loose interpretation of boundaries.

We waited to ride the double-decker tour bus for about half an hour.

It was a fabulous tour! This was around 2:30pm or 3:00pm and it was just about that time that I started seeing children show their sleepiness. The tour served as a great little respite for us all.

Simon fought Mr. Sandman for as long as he could.

And finally Mr. Sandman won.

That boy slept so hard that he slept through the tour, slept in his stroller, and wouldn't even wake up when I whispered about seeing more animals or eating brownies!

The day was a great day. The kids did a great job walking for miles. I still kind of want yearly passes. It wasn't until the two hour drive home in the dark that I questioned my logic.