Taking Micah to the Zoo

The three little boys and I went to the Phoenix zoo a week ago, and I had wanted to post about it, but . . . see the "Too Busy to Pee" entry below. We went with our friends the Greens and her sister-in-law.
Let me just add here that I LOVE having a membership to the zoo. Not only is it fairly cheap, but it allows you to view the zoo guilt-free. You've all done it, I know. "We have to see every single corner of this museum, because we paid our entry fee, and I know we're all tired and hungry and sick to death of euohippus exhibits, but really, we paid for it, and who knows when we'll be back again?" This mode of thinking is completely eliminated with a membership card. When we get too tired, we ... just ... come ... home. Cool, huh? It only took me eighteen years and seven kids to figure this out, so if you're only on kid 3 or 4, don't feel bad.
So we went to the zoo. It was fun. Although we didn't see as much of the zoo as we normally do (re: disclaimer above, so no guilt about it!), we had a good excuse. Among the three moms, we had ten kids--my three boys (all 4 and younger), Erin's three girls (all 4 and younger), and Joyce's 4-year-old, Brooklyn, and her 14-month-old triplets. You'd think a group like this would be out of place, but not at the zoo at 9 am. But this gaggle of noise did understandably inhibit our ability to travel quickly.
Micah's favorite part of the zoo is the jaguar. Why, I don't know. But last fall, the black jaguar died, and he was quite sad about it. When the zoo replaced it with a new one (a beautiful tan rosetted species), he was thrilled. Now, we can't make a single trip to the zoo without trying to see Caipora (yes, we even know her name). Trying to see her is the correct word choice. After all, she is a jaguar. It's in her genetic makeup and best interest to camouflage herself in the wild. I guess no one told her about the security cameras at the zoo. But, lucky for us, she had just been fed when we walked up to her cage.


You can't really tell from this pic, but she's eating an entire roasting chicken. We were really lucky to happen upon this scene, because it only took her about 3 minutes total to devour the whole thing. Micah was thrilled, can you tell?
We attempted to take their pictures together, but he was just the right height to get the extra security fence. She's back there, if you look closely.

Three packages of fruit snacks, three containers of goldfish crackers, three string cheeses, three packages of peanut butter crackers, three packages of raisins, one water bottle and two sippy cups later, and we really had to leave. I guess I wasn't as prepared on the snack front as I'd thought I was when we left the house. That's ok. An hour at the zoo is better than an hour cleaning house any day of the year!