Washington D.C. Day Four - Zoo

This morning was a little bit rough for me.  I have not been getting enough sleep on this trip and we have had some kid related stress.  Part of it is adjusting to a new member of the family and part of it is logistical.  Our house is great but it is not particularly sound proof.  This is mostly a problem in the morning since everyone in my family sleeps in, my kids wake up early and full of energy, and the only place for us to be is in the living room in the middle of the house.  We don't travel often with my family and traveling with small children has its own particular demands so I have been worried that my extended family is being inconvenienced by my immediate family.  Those worries plus the lack of sleep meant that I woke this morning on the edge emotionally and it only got worse from there.  

I was already close to tears when James woke up and took me most of the morning to relax and for us to start working as a team.  Between traveling with our kids and family and the fact that James has been going to sleep early we have not had any time alone which starts to wear on us.  But despite all that we made it to the zoo this morning and had a really nice day.

Jon's Lego helicopter.  The boys have been playing Legos and reading when we are at the house.

Jon's picture of his Helicopter

The National Zoo is wonderful and big enough that we were only able to see about half of it.  We ended up parking on opposite ends from my family and had to walk uphill through the whole zoo to meet them.  David was incredible and carried Charlie on his shoulders the whole way.  He is such a great uncle!  Our first stop was the pandas and the elephants which were both very active today.  The kids were thrilled and endlessly entertained by a male elephant relieving himself, it might have been the highlight of their day.  

Colin was captivated by the Otters

And they were really cute!  There was a great family of otters there.

 We traveled through the Asia trail and one of my favorite exhibits was a family of playful otters.  When we stopped for a bathroom break Jon saw a stuffed panda bear in a gift shop.  "My Poly (stuffed animal polar bears) family needs to adopt him!"  He was so sweet about it that I let him but the Panda who turned out to be a baby girl that he named "Fluffy Pandy".  He carried her around in his sweatshirt the rest of the day.  

Jon and his new Panda are excited about a giant egg

Colin shows off a skeleton

My handsome brother Daniel at the zoo

We only traveled with my family for a little bit, for most of the day we split up but David stayed with us.  It was really great to spend time with him!  We went to the bird house which was cool and then the great ape house.  We were hungry and tired by this time so we stopped for lunch before heading to the reptile house.  Charlie really liked this one and looked closely at all the exhibits.  He was one orange snake in a tree that he called an "Orangutan Snake" which was pretty cute.  Colin was having fun too and took a lot of pictures.

Colin meets a peacock

Colin in the Bird House

Christian liked this "Orangutan" snake

Basilisk

After that we had ice cream and let the boys run in the Prairie Dog play area.  We had planned on seeing more of the zoo (there was still a lot left!) but we were all so tired that we packed up and went home.  James let me take a little break while he made chicken soup for Jacob which really made a difference.  The rest of the night was pretty quiet, we watched The Rescuers, had supper and put the kids to bed.  Some of us played games afterwards and that was a lot of fun.  But now it is getting late again and it is time for bed.  

David with all the kids.  He is such a wonderful man!

Dinner time at the Reptile House

Goodnight!