Welcoming summer {A trip to the zoo}

 Last friday was a "PA Day", meaning that all three kids were home with me, which, in two weeks is going to be an every day thing for all 71 days of summer vacation. (But who's counting??)
On this particular friday, Kaleb and I had an already-scheduled speech therapy session in town, so all four of us headed out.
Generally, the kids are pretty well-behaved in situations such as this, but I used to opportunity of the whole day spent in town and the nice weather and the PA Day, to promise them a trip to the zoo after the appointment was over, should they be on their best behaviour during Kaleb's therapy session.

I didn't hear a peep!

After Kaleb was finished, I took them out for a special lunch and off to the zoo we went!

Have I mentioned how fantastic our local zoo is? Not only does it have a lovely splash pad for the kids to cool off in, equipped with bathrooms and changerooms and lots of shady places for mom and baby to sit, not only does it have a massive playground (one of the best I've seen) with things like rock climbing, and a huge slide that takes you down to the lower level of the park, but it has 48 species of animals! Now, it's not like a city zoo with elephants and polar bears, mind you.. our zoo is 100% outdoors, in a park-like setting with animals like camels and llamas and monkeys and otters.. but it's also entirely free, funded by the city and the city's electrical company and dependant on volunteers and donations.

The kids had a great time splashing in the water, cooling off in the hot sun while the littlest one and I watched from the sidelines. I put Trenton's feet in a few times but he wasn't a fan of the cold water on his warm skin and was instead quite content to watch the kids dance around from the comfor of his stroller, getting the occasional splash of cool water. When they were done, we walked for hours.. talking about the different animals and watching them. They asked lots of questions, as they always do, and Hailey read the signs to her brothers and did her best to read out the latin names.
Then we sat in the shade and had some ice cream before loading back up in the car and settling in for the drive home, where all three slept soundly in the backseat.

We tend to visit our zoo frequently during the year, especially during the hot summer months.. I'm looking forward to the trips like this.. I'm so grateful to have it at our fingetips.