Trips to the zoo never get old

I cannot sing enough praises for the Memphis zoo. My kids have been more in their short lives than most adults in Memphis I think. A zoo membership for our whole family and my mom is less than $100 a year. Fortunately we live in the south so we humans and the animals can commune year round. We have many times found ourselves in Mid-December looking for fun outdoor activities, and while this winter was a frigid one, by our standards anyway, we still made time during the late fall and late winter to get our moneys worth out of our membership. I love taking my monkeys to see the zoo monkeys.

We like to tie her on and drag her for punishment. It's a shame she enjoys it so much.

She is turning into quite a diva. Who am I kidding she was born that way.

Sweet naive children.

4:59

The zoo was actually closing for the evening and we were making our way to the exit. The kids wanted just one more peek at the flamingos. As they were hanging onto the fence, my mom suggested that I take a look at the warning sign. "This electric fence is turned on at 5 p.m. and off at 9 a.m. daily." It was in fact in the 4:55ish range. A normal parent's reaction would be, hey kids get off. I on the other hand immediately began the search for my phone/camera and made the kids get closer to the sign for the picture that I "had to take."

You might think it's the camera angle that makes her feet look so large, but you would be mistaken. Baby girl has got some large pedal extremities.

The giraffes are always a highlight

Hollywood and Top-gun ladies and gentlemen.

Being drug around the zoo can really tucker a girl out.

The kids and I made a Saturday trip to the zoo with our friend Charlsie and her son Trace and her youngest daughter Catherine. We went specifically so that the boys could go ice skating at the rink the zoo sponsored during December and January. It has been a long time since I have laughed that hard. It was really fun ice skating with the boys even if I spent most of the time picking one or both of them up off the ice. As soon as one got up the other would go down. My ab muscles got a serious workout from chuckling.

Her pigtails kinda look like devil horns. Hmmmm.

Mamama = grandmama

We were all worn out this trip. Harper Ann was mostly interested in covering herself with dirt.

Waiting for the sea lions.

November in Memphis. You never can put those sprinklers up.

What's that saying about we all have to eat our pound of dirt in our lifetime. That goes double for my kiddos.

What a cutie.