THAT PLACE WAS A ZOO

It was another gorgeous day here in Denver, crazy windy this morning, but nothing that could stop us from keeping our promise to Ethan. We headed over to the Denver Zoo, with Dad in tow this time, to enjoy the animals one last time before the snow falls. We waited in a lot of traffic to get to the zoo today, but as I assured Scot (who was growing less and less excited as the cars moved slower) we would find parking without a fight. I was right - all signs point to lucky. ( : We only had a couple hours to roam before the zoo closed for the night, so we picked up the pace a bit and got our party started. Ethan rode on Dad's shoulders most of the time we were at the zoo, which meant that I got to push the empty stroller with my bag in the basket. Ahhhh. All in all, it was great for me -last time we came to the zoo, I had to carry Ethan in one arm AND push the empty stroller.
Ethan made it a point to extend a formal farewell to every animal we saw - it was very sweet. Today, he particularly loved watching the sea lions who were in serious performance mode. They weren't out last time we were at the zoo, so it was something new I suppose.

Scot noticed that the carousel was going this afternoon, so after a quick trip through the monkey house (which earned its name today, and not because of the animals...), we headed straight for the ticket booth. I took Ethan on his first ride, and in honor of Ben Quinn, he rode on the male peacock. At first, Ethan wasn't quite sure what was going on - but after a few rotations of the bird (is that what they're called?), he really got into it...and apparently I was having a pretty good time too.

Scot took Ethan on the second ride - where he was kicked off the sweet black Jaguar by some little hispanic boy who didn't speak English. That's when the fists came out (ok, not really...but as a mother I was ready if it came to that). Scot moved Ethan into the far inner circle to ride the hyena. Let it be said that when I was a kid, I would've felt jipped that I didn't get to ride on a cool animal, but we weren't at the front of the line to have first pick & frankly Ethan didn't care what he sat on, so long as it moved. I'll give him a few years. ( :

I loved spending the day with my boys.