Hogle Zoo

We have been so busy doing fun things that there just hasn't been time to blog! Uncle Mike returned from his mission last week and Aunt Amy, Uncle Richard and cousin Caleb came from California for the occasion. While Mike was away 3 new members (all boys-so Ella still holds her title of only granddaughter on both sides) joined the family so he had a lot of catching up to do with them. We also broke down and bought a new jogging stroller that holds both kids!! I love it.

First on the list of fun things to do was the zoo.



Luckily we had our resident gazetteer, Ella, to guide us through the wild that is the Hogle Zoo. She is wearing her monkey "backpack" which is actually a leash. The distinction in name is important so that Ella believes she is somehow helping out this monkey by toting him around on her back, rather than "the man" trying to keep tabs on her. Whatever you call it it works!



Cousin Caleb, Uncle Mike and Ella waiting to see the Pachyderm show. We were bummed because the Elephants were tired and they brought out the rhinos instead. Ella is doing the smile she does whenever we tell her to smile. If you want the normal one you have to say "smile, but not too much and open your eyes"



Here is the whole gang-minus Mike who was taking the picture. From left to right. Aunt Amy, Tate, Seth, Aunt April, me, Ella and Caleb. Caleb is a take charge kinda guy. He will grab your hand and just pull you where he needs to go. Amy has taught him that #2 means poop so whenever he sees it he says "2". Of course being at the zoo there was a lot of 2 and Caleb let us know whenever he saw it.



There is my sweet Seth-a-boy as Ella calls him currently. He enjoyed seeing all the animals and kids.



Ella and Caleb in the reptile house-Ella's favorite part of the zoo. Caleb was so funny. He would look at each snake and lizard and say "Ewww!"



Finally Ella got to see her favorite animal, the crocodile. I don't know what this face means. I hazard a guess of "Why are you ruining this moment with a picture?"



Merry-go-round time! After much deliberation Ella picked the kangaroo. Caleb picked the praying mantis because it was a bug and he loves bugs. He is known to be either carrying a bug on his person or squashing some kind of bug at all times.





Okay so I love this picture. We were all pressuring Ella to pretend the lion was really going to eat her. She decided to not play along at all.





No trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the zoo train. It was great, but the whole cowboy graveyard thing at the end always seems so out of place to me. I know we are in the West but I thought this was a zoo. Am I crazy?