at the zoo

The last Wednesdays of the month, November through February, are free at Hogle Zoo. Normally the end of November would not be ideal for a zoo visit, but we've had such nice weather that last Wednesday actually was pretty nice. Chilly but not terrible. We were all okay with jackets on and occasionally warming up inside buildings. I'd originally tried to see if any of my in-laws wanted to come with us, but they had plans already. I then thought about calling a friend with kids to join us, but in the end decided the kids and I could use some relaxing, "quality time" together without the distraction of other people. I'm really glad we went alone. It was nice to just go where they chose and not feel constrained by what other kids wanted to see. We meandered through the zoo happily for about three hours and the kids did great. A new addition since our last visit was the Conservation Carousel. It was $2/kid, but since we hadn't paid admission, I figured we could splurge. (I even got to ride free because I was accompanying a kid!) Seriously the most BEAUTIFUL carousel I've ever seen. What a fabulous addition. They were playing Christmas music and it seemed that all we needed was a light snow falling to make it movie-worthy. I had a wonderful time with my two little kids.

(There are many more pictures of Noodle than Spud because she was in a more cooperative mood. The weird blue picture turned out oddly anyways, so I thought adding a blue cast to it was appropriate.)