Temple ZOo trip

Friday June 13 th

We headed up to the temple today and decided to fit in the National Zoo as well.  It is about 20 to 30 min away from the temple so Chad dropped the kids and I off while he went and did a session.  It was a very hot day and with the hustle and bustle I forgot the sunscrean and the umbrellas in the car.

Here we are ready for a fun day at the zoo!

First stop Cheetah's

Soon we headed to the aviary building.  Landon was so excited to see this burrowing owl!  He has wanted to see an owl for a couple of years now and his excitement shows!

Another type of owl.

The girls especially loved seeing the flamingos.  Pink, pink, pink!

My personal favorite was the see otters.  They are so playful and active, and what can I say one of my nicknames was Ottie!  The sea lions were also very active. We found a great place to watch them here through the glass and take a break.  They would race back and forth right next to the kids.  We even got to see them do a few tricks for their food.  As we headed back out we heard the thunder and the rain started.  We turned a corner and found a cool little cave.  Here was a huge wall of glass to watch the sea lions under water, and lots of benches to sit and rest.  We felt blessed to find such a great spot to wait out the storm since I forgot the umbrellas in the car.  We could even see the rain hit the top of the water it was quite beautiful. After the storm died down we ventured out again and saw another of Landon's favorites wolves.

We headed to the Ape building next and got a blast of monkey stench as we walked through the door.  With a wrinkled nose and trying to hide in my shirt, Annalese said, "what is that amazing smell!"  We didn't last long in that building.  Next we headed to the small mammal building when we heard from Chad that he was on his way.  We stopped off to see the elephants as we headed back to our meeting spot.  We had a fun time at the zoo!

After the Zoo, Michelle enjoyed a session in the temple, as Chad and the kids played at a park, went and got some ice cream, and then visited the Visitors Center.  We finished the day with a family picture in front of the statue of Christ.  It's such a blessing to have the temple as part of our lives and that our kids love so much to see the temple and visit there.