Oregon Zoo!

On Monday morning Mason called me and Steph and convinced us it was a good day to go to the zoo. I'm not so great about being spontaneous like that so its good we have him around. It was overcast but really not too cold. In fact I decided it was a good day for the animals. I've never seen them so active and awake. I guess I always go when its a hot day in summer. The kids are standing in front of the tiger enclosure here. This was probably the only animal who was asleep so its not a good shot of him. But I thought it was a perfect chance to get most of the cousins in a shot all lined up.

Paige was very excited about the animals that she could see, like the hippo in this picture. She wasn't afraid at all like Courtney was when she was little. However, if the animals had any kind of camouflage she completely missed them. A few times she would be looking right at them and kept saying "I don't see it!" It was pretty funny.

Dylan liked the lion statues better than the animals themselves. I really liked this new exhibit. I don't remember the lions being there the last time I was. We don't go there often enough. I get too intimidated by driving in Portland and all the crowds. Mason was kind enough to drive my car on the way up and really there were no crowds that day. Courtney was in school and so she missed the trip. But I didn't feel too bad because her school is making a trip to the zoo in a couple weeks. I'll be going as a chaperon so I should be posting zoo pictures again soon.

Courtney's big news this week was that she won a drawing contest at her school. She came home on Monday with her prizes, a blue jump rope and two candy bars. She was so excited it was the first thing she said as I picked her up from the bus. It was a real boost for her self-esteem and her obsession with drawing pictures has only been reinforced.