Philadelphia Zoo

This summer has been a busy one. However, aside from our vacation in June, our family really hasn't had a lot of time all together, just the four of us doing something fun. Besides his usual 9-5 job, Chad has been heading up the search committee at our church for a new outreach pastor. This has eaten up a lot of time with meetings, correspondence, phone interviews, etc. and has left me "holding down the fort" at home. "Holding down the fort" always sounded like the easy job to me, but having held down the fort for months now, I am here to say that it is not always easy. It means that I pick up some of the slack for things that Chad would normally be doing at home. I'm not complaining by saying this, because I support him doing the work of leading at church and he has been a hard worker around the house too ... I'm just saying, I am better realizing how to serve my family and learning how to "serve the Lord with gladness." (Okay, I confess I've had a few "un-glad" moments, but all in all it's been fine!)

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming ... :)

So earlier this week we decided to take the kids to the zoo on Saturday. The weather yesterday couldn't have been nicer - high in the low 80's and sunny. A perfect outside day! After a longer trip down there than anticipated (aargh, that Schuylkill Expressway traffic! Is it perpetually congested, even on weekends?) ... and a few grumbles from the back seat (a la "are we there yet?"), we arrived and went on to have a great day.

Here we go with some pictures:

The start of our day.
Note that poor Carter is again trapped in his stroller ...

Audrey with the zebras in the background (WAY back, you can hardly see them!) When we went to the zoo in Minnesota, she was disappointed that there were no zebras, so she was excited to see them here.

Audrey & Chad checking out the giraffes.

This leopard came RIGHT up close, and licked his lips. Guess all those little kids with their noses pressed up to the glass were looking tasty ...

Carter getting an up high view of the zoo. He was just glad to be out of his dang stroller. After the past week, I think he may just start crying at the sight of it! The boy just wants to be free!

The zoo had a nice "children's zoo" area. Lucky Chad got to be in this picture!

I just couldn't resist this shot.

Carter petting a sheep and a "GO" [goat]

What you lookin' at?
Chad's favorite animal, the cheetah. I always tease him when we go to a zoo because we come home with 3 pictures of the kids and 300 pictures of animals. I'm exaggerating of course. But we do have about 10 pictures of this one cheetah!

I love watching the monkeys (and gorillas). They're so playful and energetic. Most zoo animals just seem to lay around and look bored.

Gotta keep the troops happy with ice cream.

Carter was eating an apple until he saw what the rest of us had!

It ended up being a fun day. We even got free parking through the B101 website (normally $12!), and discounted tickets from Acme. And Carter was still a freebie.

But I was feeling every one of my 36 years last night (and even today) ... I don't know how Jon & Kate plus 8 do things like travel on day trips with 8 kids ... I only have 2 and I'm exhausted!!