Family Day

After we returned, Clay was off work on Monday so we made it a family day and took ourselves to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo--a fantastic free zoo right in the city. My favorite part is the gorilla house. We got to see some of the animals very close up.

First stop was the petting zoo where we got to see a barn owl; although we did not pet it because as that cute old lady explained it could "tear your face off" with its talons. James knows owls, we have an owl statue in the garage and he likes to point at it and say "hoo, hoo" when we get into the car.

Then we saw the cows eating lunch, which James really enjoyed.

I was first in line for the free milking

Here, James takes an oath that he will only touch the goat's back and sides. And if understood that he's in trouble because he's been pretending not to understand "no" for a long time. But I have to add that today I told him to get his shoe and he left the room, walked down the hallway, and came back with his shoe--I was very excited!

Here, we force James to touch the goat.

When we went to see the lions they were all sleeping but one was laying right next to the viewing window and you can see her in the far right corner.

Does he look uncomfortable?

The best part of the whole day was the polar bears who appeared to be putting on a synchronized swimming show for us, also uncomfortably close to the glass.

Oh, James is sharing his juice.

It was a great family day. We spent the rest of it in the baby pool and then watching Clay's soccer game. We also took James to the daycare at the YMCA for the first time where he hit someone in the face. I maintain that he's just overly affectionate and that sometimes love hurts.