Woo hoo! The Zoo!

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As part of our ongoing quest to reduce the amount of “stuff” in our lives, we went a little non-traditional for Christmas gifts for my family this year. Around Thanksgiving, I called Katie and asked her set aside Sunday, Dec. 27th, and that she would receive further instructions later.
On Christmas, we presented everyone (including Josie!) with identically wrapped boxes… of animal crackers! Faith's box was empty! We explained to her that her animals had escaped, and we had to go the San Francisco Zoo to get them back!
As I've mentioned before, Jamie's sister, Amelia, works at the Zoo in the Animal Resource Center, and her internship is ending this month, and she's relocating to New Mexico… we wanted to get in one more zoo trip before she leaves, so this was the perfect opportunity!
We took Max to the SF Zoo back in February, but had never been to *this* zoo with Faith, so we were all very excited! We packed a picnic lunch in the wagon and headed out!

We saw lots of animals, and Katie and I took the kiddos on the carousel…

Nana got into a minor standoff with a peacock…

Max did great in the Beco and I'm going to miss it when I return it to Michelle…

Katie, Jason, Faith and Papa got up close and personal with some lions…

Amelia gave us a VIP tour of the ARC, letting us see (and touch!) all sorts of cool animals, including a skink, an alligator, an opossum, an armadillo, a ferret and a hedgehog! Max, by the way, has NO FEAR when it comes to touching whatever strange things are offered up to him! I see the good and bad sides to that…

And proof of a successful day at the zoo? A conked out kiddo! We finished the day with hot cocoa and french fries in the cafe, and Max fell asleep in Jamie's arms, something he *never* does!

We had a great family day, and it's always fun seeing Amelia at work! We're going to miss her when she moves, but are looking forward to future visits at the Albuquerque Zoo someday!