I ended up erring on the side of quantity rather than quality and took somewhere around 280 photos! Here are a few highlights:
"Jellies! Dude...."
He thinks every fish is Nemo.
I want everyone to notice and appreciate that Mommy went inside the reptile area and even stood directly in front of the snakes, including this ENORMOUS anaconda that could have easily swallowed my boy whole if some eleven year old boy who didn't know he was a wizard yet had been standing behind him talking to the snake in Parseltongue even though he didn't really realize he was talking to the snake but then the glass disappears and my boy falls head-first into the anaconda's den of death!!!
I have a slight fear of snakes. And a ridiculous obsession with Harry Potter.
Moving along.
The dinosaur exhibit was incredible. These creatures were so incredibly realistic and one even spit!
Isaiah really loved the T Rex!
And since riding anything that spins makes Mommy puke, Daddy took Isaiah on the merry-go-round to finish off our adventure at the zoo!
Yes, Micah was there too.
I think Evan and I agreed that our favorite part of the day was when we came across the brown bears "playing." They went at it for a good long while and I was able to snap some awesome photos:
But the video below shows it even better. Enjoy the Bear Fight!
Another one of the wonderful parts of this outing was that we didn't have to worry about how we were going to pay for it. Thanks to our new budget under the TMMO, we have been setting aside cash every month into a "Vacation" envelope. We had more than enough funds available in that envelope to buy our tickets to the zoo, parking, the dinosaur exhibit, the merry-go-round, ice cream, and even a dinner out at Red Robin.....with plenty to spare! Obviously, we saved money by making several deliberate choices. We bought our tickets in advance at the Community Center (saved approx $5), packed our lunch and didn't by any concessions other than ice cream (saved at least $15), skipped many extras at the zoo like camel rides and over-priced stuffed animal souvenirs (saved at least $20), and kept refilling the water bottles we brought with us at the bubblers (that's what we call 'em in Wisconsin) as we emptied them (saved approx $5). All in all, we ended up with a great day together as a family free from the stress of how to pay for it!
What have been your favorite outings together as a family?
