Kim's first field trip to the Zoo

Kim had her first field trip yesterday and both Dave and I got to go. Since she is in kindergarten there were many parents that attended. Each group was made up of 2 kids and 1 adult and in some cases like Kim, there were 2 adults and 2 kids. There were so many schools there on field trips, it was a ZOO, literally. I think we out numbered the animals by a million to one. The other girl in the pictures was not Hadley if you were wondering... It is Jessi, a classmate of Kim's.

The trip started off a little slow. First we got onto the wrong bus. The entire morning and afternoon classes were packed into the bus before it was noticed that we were on the wrong bus. Then we got onto the correct bus and found out the driver had to be back earlier than we planned. So our trip was cut even shorter. On the way to the zoo there was quite a bit of traffic (for Portland) so it took us 30 minutes longer to get there. By the time we finally got there we only had 2 hours at the zoo so we basically ran from exhibit to exhibit. That is why Kim is walking so fast in the picture. There was a dinosaur exhibit that was there but it was extra so we didn't get to go. Plus there is a 3-D dinosaur movie playing as well. We still had fun looking at all of the dinosaur stuff that was around the zoo.
We loved walking through the zoo, looking at all of the animals and sometimes the statue animals were more entertaining that the real ones.
Kim's favorite animal is a leopard. Her school in Northern California, Lafayette Elementary, their mascot is a leopard and the office was full of different leopards. So she wanted a picture of a real leapard.
This is the bridge over the black bear exhibit. It is also the 'gateway' to the Great Northwest part of the zoo. It isn't visited as much as you would think because most of the animals there we see outside of the zoo.

Aunt Dannelle, Uncle Neil, Josie and James decided to meet us at the zoo. Since we didn't have much time there we watched a bird show and ate lunch with them. They had a great time as did we.
This is the bronzed goat that is touched by all the little children every time they walk by. So needless to we had to get a picture.
The hippos were lounging around and the girls thought it was really cute.
The Meerkats were pretty much the only animals out and playing. So we had to take a picture. The LCD screen on the back of our camera is cracked so you can only see the corner of the picture and it has no hole to look through so some of our pictures don't capture all of what we would want. Kim was in this picture, at lease part of her. :) Most of the exhibits were closed for cleaning. Plus, we used to watch Meerkat Manor.

Okay if this vehicle looks a little familiar, it should. This is the same make of Land Rover that Dave drove when we first met. He really enjoyed this picture but the Rover has seen better days. If you were wondering we still see the old Rover around town. The new owner changed out the diesel engine for a gas one. (I bet he is regretting that right about now, since we changed it to the diesel because the diesel gets such better gas mileage.) He also put back on the old hardtop which leaks and is very noisy. We converted to a canvas top because it didn't leak and it looked better. He also took out the roll cage that Dave put in. (The guy must have a death wish.) But it will always be known as 'Dave's Old Rig.' The new owner doesn't care to hear that either.

Here we are back at the school after the trip. We were all very tired. Dave had worked the night (graveyard shift) before and then came on the trip without sleeping. He was out cold right when we got home. Kim fell asleep on the way home and I took a nap once we got home. Needless to say, last night the house was very quiet except for Hadley. She refused to go to sleep, which she often does. She ended up snuggling with Daddy last night for a while and the funny thing about it is that Dave had no clue she came in.

*There are more pictures if you go to older posts. I posted the day before yesterday as well. Don't miss out on Hadley's ballet outfit. *