Animals, Animals!

Grade 3 had a field trip to the Zoo in late April, and Amy had the chance to tag along as a chaperone (one Z parent usually tries to be a chaperone each time - great way to spend time with the kids plus get to know their friends a little more).

Addison's "group" included Audrey Stagg which was fun to walk around and do the exhibits with.  There is one other kid - Liam (one of Addison's "besties") in the class and the three of them had made up a funny little song about being siblings with blond hair - Amy missed the video opportunity though, so it is just in our imagination/memories now! 

A zoo guide walked us around the zoo sharing with us certain educational elements about the animals, which was very interesting.  Then we went into their classrooms where they brought out a few small animals and birds for the kids to see up close and personal.

Afterwards, the kids and families were allowed to walk around the park freely to experience more of the animals.

Up close with the cheetahs!

One of the favorite things to do of course is to go to the petting zoo and feed the animals:

But nothing is better than feeding the giraffe!  So fun and cool!

Because we drove and didn't take the school bus, we could stay afterwards and get cool in the water park.  Addison hadn't brought a swimsuit, so just played in her school clothes (thankfully we have leather car seats 😂)

Always climbing....

Thanks for a fun day together!

Loved spending the day with sweet girl!

That Friday, Amy took the afternoon off and took Kaleb for his "birthday afternoon with Mom" along with Evan and Addison to Animal Kingdom.  It was great fun, and thankfully the lines weren't terrible so we didn't have to wait for anything too terribly long

The cool central tree in the park with the animal carvings on it

Always fun to see the giraffes

We went on the Everest roller coaster - which is a nice "intro" roller coaster as it doesn't go as high nor does it go upside down.  Addison decided that she was tall enough, old enough, and most importantly brave enough to try a roller coaster so this is the one that we did.  She got pretty nervous right before but stayed the course.  

Ready or not, here we go!

Evan and Kaleb lucked out big time and got the front row!

Afterwards, Addison said she had so much adrenaline that her legs were shaky as she walked but she was super excited that she did it and gave it a big thumbs up!

The Everest ride in the background

We did a few other rides - including the water ride in which we got soaked along with the Pandora ride (that is one amazing ride - and Addison did it a year or so ago and was nervous but this time she just had a great time)

dripping wet!

Thanks Evan for joining us!

Other happenings:

Pathfinder colorguard - Erik got to do it with Kaleb this year so that was kind of fun!