A day at the zoo

Today we went to the zoo. We thought of going to London Zoo, but decided instead to go to Whipsnade Zoo, which is an outpost of London Zoo. Its a bit outside the city and is very big, and thus provides more comfortable accomodations for larger animals. We met some friends there - my sister-in-law's niece and nephew, along with her nephew's five-year-old daughter, and also his girlfriend. It was nice to see them - I hadn't seen them in years, and of course the kids were happy to have another kid to play with.

We all had a very nice (though chilly and a bit rainy) day. It really is a big zoo. In fact, they allow cars to enter the park, so you have the option of driving around yourself, stopping wherever you'd like to get a closer look. They also have a double-decker bus that runs through the park, stopping at various spots. We started out with a bus ride, but ended up walking (except Ben, of course!) most of the day. We saw lots of animals - rhinos, giraffes, brown bears, penguins, lemurs, reindeer, chimps, camels, and more.

We stopped for lunch at a little cafe, and when we left, there was a small elephant parade walking by. Seven or eight elephants were walking in a line right on the road, big ones and babies, each holding the tail of the one before. Very neat! There is also a small steam train through some of the animal areas, and of course we couldn't miss that.

On our way out, we asked Ben what his favorite animal was from all that we saw on our visit, and he said, "the ducks." Funny kid.

We ended up being there for six hours - it all went very fast! Unfortunately it was too cold to take many photos (I preferred to keep my hands in my cozy gloves instead!) I do have a few photos to post, however...

The kids had some fun chasing a peacock
Our new backyard

Happy Birthday Ben! We had a little birthday celebration after the zoo with this Scooby Doo cake.

I may be taking a little break from this blog next week - Brad will be away and I don't have my computer set up yet. But I promise to post as soon as I can!