"Mama's taken us to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow...."

Yes, all week I heard the song about 'Mama taking us to the zoo tomorrow." I knew that we would have to go to Honolulu to pick up Seth, so I did some research and found that the Honolulu zoo was fairly small and perfect to visit for a couple of hours. Since Seth got in at 3:30 p.m., we would have time to visit the zoo, Costco, and then pick him up. Off we went to the zoo.

The picture below is a rare one because Jayne is in it. She asked if she could have the camera for the day, and I agreed. She took a picture of EVERY animal in the zoo. Thank goodness for digital cameras. There are some great pictures and then a couple with some headless giraffes, legless ostrich, and some rhinos off in the distance. I blame this new love for photography on my sister Sherri, who gave Jayne her camera one day at a soccer game to entertain her. Jayne took sooo many pictures. But the pictures ended up entertain us, because each was the view off a  little 5 year old. It consisted of my bum, my sister stomach, and some legs with a soccer ball. Yes, it is Aunt Sherri's fault that Jayne has declared herself a photographer. The camera only hit the ground once, but got its fair beating at the zoo. In the end, it made her very happy. I can post her pictures on another post- Jayne's zoo.

 From Honolulu Zoo to Seattle Zoo it is 2678 miles as pointed out by Ellie dear. That's a long way from home. But if you ask Ellie how she like Hawaii, she will tell you- she loves it. Hawaii suits Ellie. With the weather so pleasant she spends 90% of her day outside without any shoes. She rides her long board around the block 10 times a day. She complained of her right foot hurting because she wasn't wearing any shoes and had worn a hole in her foot from pushing the her long board that always has another passenger on it. She really like the zoo as well. It was the perfect size.

We couldn't resist a picture on these big hippo buns!

 I love this picture of them all leaning forward to see the fish in the water. If you look closely in the background there is a monkey swinging. 

This guy above was the creepiest animal we saw at the zoo. Look at him. That long thin snout with moss growing on it body. It looks like something from Ice Age the movie. Its a Gharials, an Indian crocodile. Super creepy. Jake said in a tough voice," yook Mom, a dinosaur." That is an awesome way to describe it, for lack of better words.

 The best of the zoo for me was Jake. I realized that Jake probably couldn't remember ever going to a zoo before. He was too little to remember the Seattle or Hoogle Zoo. So if you know Jake, you know that he is a million miles an hour and throws everything. But this day he was silent and observant. He repeated every name of the animal that we were looking at. You could see on his face the process of taking in new information. He was mesmerized. You can see him above sitting on his brother monkey's shoulders looking at the reptiles. Or him up against the fence to see the "big elephant" in his words. We probably went too fast threw each exhibit for him. He would have sat and watched and learned a bit longer had we let him. It was so fun. He was a gem to take to the zoo. I could tell he loved it. He kept asking to see the lions, because his favorite stuff animal, that he sleeps with, is a lion. (The kids have named it Aslan, since we just finished listening to the Chronicles of Narnia. So funny.) But the lion was sleeping and hard to see. We'll get him next time. And of coarse, when we stepped out of the gates, Jake melted in to a two year old pile on the ground. I think it was sensory overload, and he fell asleep in the car.

 Cute Sam and this friendly goat at the petting zoo. Jake came to join the fun.

The Honolulu zoo was a success and well worth it. We then did a quick trip to the store and then picked Seth up right on time. We are happy to have him home and I am trying to get him to write down his adventures in Boston so that I can post it on the blog. We'll see if it comes to past.