The post formally known as the zoo, arts, and parks post

I had great plans for blog for this week. Since I am a huge supporter of the zoo, arts, and parks tax I thought how fun would it be to do a post devoted to how much we loved it. And this was the perfect week because we had two visits to the park, a trip to the zoo, and a trip to the Arts Festival planned. 

We went to the parks as planned and it was fabulous. The first park we went to had a splash pad, a big kid playground, a preschool playground, and a toddler playground. The kids had a riot...I forgot the camera.  No problem I thought, we are having a church party at the park the next night. Yeah it was fun, the kids had a blast. I forgot the camera again.

Okay, no problem. Once again we are going to hit the arts festival. I could snap many pictures there and we would have a fun time. Yeah I didn't count on the cold that  would knock me out for three days or the 100 plus temperatures. So no arts festival, no pictures.

The camera and the Bradley's did make it to the zoo together though. So at least I accomplished a third of my mission. 

James was super sick so he stayed home with dad and the girls, baby, and I picked up Grammy and headed up to the zoo. 

We went early in the morning and that was by far the best. It wasn't that crowded and the animals were all out. I haven't seen that many of the animals up close and the kids thought it was a riot. 

Eve couldn't get over the water spitting elephant. She thought it was hilarious.

 Then the girls thought it would be funny to pretend to be eagles...though I think Eve is impersonating a chicken.

Then we went over to the new Rocky Shores exhibit. That was awesome I loved it.

Matty loved it two. We spent twenty minutes watching the Harbor seal.  The seal knew he had an audience and swam in circles around the window. Matty was laughing and pointing the entire time. He thought it was the best thing ever.

We also got to see the polar bear for a minute.

Then we took a ride on the carousel. Some of us loved it.

 Some of us were so traumatized that we had to cling to mom the whole time.

The girls also had to have a picture at every statue or picture place we could find.

 This included the rhino, he is their favorite.

So we had a fun time at the zoo and the parks, and I am sure we would have had a fun time at the Arts Festival too...Oh well, I guess I will just have to celebrate ZAP another way.