The Zoo

I had asked my Dad if he would like to come to the zoo with the kids and I sometime this summer.  It turned out that yesterday was the perfect time to go, so I also asked my mom to come with us because she has been mass cleaning and sorting out her upstairs bedrooms and I thought she could use a break from the monotony!  We decided to leave super early, 7:00am, so we could go to the zoo in the morning while it is still relatively cool and then in the afternoon my mom and I would take Emry school shopping while my dad hung out with Calum!  We got away only half an hour later than we wanted to because we had to go and get Jared from the pasture where the cows are, he was out fixing the water for the cows, unloading grain trucks and bringing the tank home to fill until 2:30am the night before and then had to go out early enough before work to give the cows water!!  The drive up was fun visiting with my mom, so much fun that we missed the exit for the zoo!  I saw the exit for 16th Avenue and I thought to myself that 16th came after Memorial, but I quickly put that thought to the back of my mind while my mom and I continued to visit.  Once we got to Deerfoot Mall I knew we had for sure missed our exit!  We had a good laugh and I told my mom that any minute we would be getting a call from my dad wondering where we are, and in fact we did, I comically told him that we were meeting him at the Edmonton Zoo!!  Finally we made it, and as soon as we got through the gates Emry reminds me that last year when we went to the zoo we didn't go see the Canadian Wilds, so first thing we did was go through the Canadian Wilds!  My mom and Calum went on ahead of us because we were taking too long!  When Emry, my dad, Armin and I got to the part in the Canadian Wilds where all the owls and birds are we had to enter through a cage type door!  I didn't know at first that this is where all the birds are so I asked my dad, "Why are we caged in?"  As soon as those words came out of my mouth my mom and Calum jumped out from behind a rock and growled at us!  I screamed and they laughed!  I knew the grizzly bears were in this part of the zoo and for some reason I thought a grizzly bear was the one who growled!

Our adventures didn't end there!  Calum loved the gorilla's and the monkey's!  He just stared at them completely mesmerized with how they look and how they move, they are in fact long lost relatives to Calum!  When I put Calum to bed last night and then down for a nap earlier today he kept saying, "Fun at zoo and gampa!  Monkey's silly!"  He also would name off all the animals he saw, "Bears, zebas, monkey's, elphants, dinesnores...!"  When we were walking over to the elephants Emry spotted a peacock on the ridge of the Gorilla pen, Calum was riding on my dad's shoulders at the time and because he is terrified of birds dad wanted to see his reaction!  His grasp tightened up on my dad's hair but he reacted relatively calm!  He did ask my dad, "What's dat?"  When my dad said it was a peacock Calum said, "That no peacock, dat ummmm, dat ummmmm, a bird!"  For some reason both Emry and Calum have always said things in a way that makes adults feel soooo stupid!!  However it is quite funny!

It looked like this gorilla was pouting, he was sitting in a bucket with his arms folded across his chest! 

When this little gorilla started to climb this gate the bigger one came over to "supervise"!

On our way in to see the monkeys we passed by a little tent set up with two zoo employees and a bear trap between them.  As we got closer we could see that there was a bear inside the trap and the zoo people were telling us why bears are sometimes trapped.  As I was looking at this bear I was quite impressed with how calm it was acting for being trapped, a kid at the front was even scratching at the cage and the bear with its long sharp claws would scratch back.  I had my hand on my camera ready to take it out to capture the memory of this poor bear being stuck in the tiny cage, until the bear talked!!  I was so happy I didn't take a picture, the costume looked so real, except the eyes did have me wondering, they looked a little phoney!  We had another good laugh.  The day was full of lots of laughs and great memories!

I have always wanted a pet monkey, and like Jared says I have three already!  But after seeing one of the spider monkey's at the zoo I have totally changed my mind, it was being so gross!  Emry and I saw him eat his own pooh!

This Spider Monkey was hanging onto this wall with his hands and tail and then eventually just his tail!  It was quite cute!

Calum was pretending this lion was a car!  He kept saying, "Vroom, vroom!"

Emry was so tired by the time this picture was taken!  She had been up until almost eleven the night before boating with the Young Men and Young Women!

After the zoo mom, Emry, Armin and I went school clothes shopping for Emry, while Dad took Calum with him.  It was so much fun taking Emry around the store, the clothes she picked out are so cute, but not little girly at all!  I asked her if I could borrow her clothes, the sweater she picked out is totally my style!  I took her into the change room where she would stand with her back to me right in front of the mirror so I couldn't see until she turned around.  My dad gave her twenty dollars to pick out a shirt, and she took it up to the till all by herself and gave the cashier her money, she even got some change back and thought that was so cool!  When we got home that night Emry had to model all her new things for daddy!  He thought she looked pretty cute but a little too grown up!

Dad took Calum for ice cream to Dairy Queen, where dad said he ate his cone like a big boy...he even wiped his own face!  Dad also took Calum over to his work to see the big trucks and flirt with all the ladies, which he did all to effortlessly!  Dad called Calum a "chick magnet"!  They had a great time together and it showed because Calum was truly exhausted!  After we got a few things at Walmart we went through the McDonald's drive thru, I ordered Calum some chicken mcnuggets and milk.  We had to make one more stop on our way home at Staples, and from McDonald's we had to drive through two sets of stop lights, by the time we got to the second set I looked back to see how Calum was doing and what I saw was priceless!  With the chicken half way to his mouth he fell asleep!  He slept until we got to High River and when I heard him rummaging around I looked back again, he was looking for his chicken and when he found it he just started eating again, almost like no time had passed and he hadn't fallen asleep!

Emry said going to the zoo and then shopping just for her was the best day of her life!  When we were at Winners I told her I just wanted to look at one thing, we had already picked a ton of stuff for her, she asked if I was going to look at big people's clothes, when I said yes she answered with, "Today is just supposed to be my shopping day!"  And that was true so we went to the change room instead so she could try on her clothes!

Again it was a great day, and it really was fun to spend the day with both my mom and my dad!  I am so happy they can be friends, I admire them both so much and always enjoy being around them.  They have both taught me so much!