Two At the Zoo

I've been seeing a new doctor for my headaches and since her office is only five minutes from the zoo, after my appointment last week Malia and I spent a couple of hours checking out the animals. I didn't tell her we were going and she was so excited when we arrived that she jumped up and down and said, "Thank you, thank you for coming to the zoo!"

We have never been to the zoo without the boys and it was really great to be able to go at Malia's pace, seeing the things she wanted to see. That means we saw elephants, monkeys (neither of which surprised me) and snakes (which did). There was one particular monkey that came right up to the glass and just stared at Malia. She, of course, stared right back. We stood at that particular cage for a good five minutes or so as she studied that funny little monkey.

(I know the picture is a little blurry. It was dim inside the monkey house and taking great pics with my iPod camera is still a work in progress.)

She was brave enough to sit on the metal elephant's trunk for a picture, something she has never done before and didn't look all that pleased about this time even though it was her idea.

And because the crowds were not overwhelming and the line was not ridiculously long, she got to ride the carousel. She was so excited once she had her ticket in her hand and was waiting for her turn that she simply could not get close enough.

She stood just like that the entire time we were waiting in line. Her response when the carousel started to spin was, "This is awesome!!" Needless to say, she was pretty bummed when her turn was over. She really loved it. 

 
When we were done at the zoo we ate lunch at Wendy’s. We don’t eat out all that often and when we do, most of the time we do take out so that we can cook something for Matthew at home. So eating in the restaurant is a treat for Malia.

Because of all Matthew's food allergies, spur of the moment trips like this are always hard with him because we have to plan in advance or be home by mealtimes since he can't safely eat out. So being able to just go on an outing on a whim and stay as long as we want is nice. I'll have to take advantage of it before Malia gets old enough for school. And she is so grateful about our excursion (she mentioned it in her prayers for days afterward) that it makes me perfectly willing to take her again.