Some Impromptu Fun

I was expecting to spend another day at home, hiding from the heat and only driving the car for necessary excursions. But...the day didn't go as planned. Thank goodness, I'm getting cabin fever! Actually I thought we'd be running across town picking up and delivering some Mary Kay, but that didn't happen either so we were free to some impromptu fun.

It all started when I went to the basement to quickly check my email before feeding Casey & Lillie. Of course I just can't stop with email, I've got to check Facebook too. I hate waiting on the Internet to load our home page, MSN before I can navigate to something more interesting, but today it proved to be fruitful. The front story was about "National Donut Day" and how Krispy Kreme was giving away free donuts today. Here's the background on the day's festivities from the Lamar's Website (they have amazing cake donuts...the only donut I'll allow myself to eat when I'm not pregnant and living my healthy Weight Watchers lifestyle):

Did you know National Donut Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June? In 1917, Salvation Army female volunteers known as “lassies” prepared thousands of fresh donuts to the homesick soldiers that served in France during World War I. National Donut Day was officially established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression.

An attempted photo of the both of us. Not very good results, and he wouldn't wear the Krispy Kreme paper hat they gave him.

We shared a chocolate cake donut and a Krispy Kreme with sprinkles. He liked them both and went to pick up the pieces that he dropped on the floor (the chocolate cake one was crumbly)!

After the donuts I decided to head to the Zoo. Charles loves to be outside and it was actually a pretty cool morning. We were at the Zoo by 9am and Charles did a lot of walking thanks to his monkey back pack. Hopefully he'll take a nice long nap. He's been in a climbing phase and while walking decided he needed to stand on all the fences.


We saw some things today that we haven't seen before. Our first stop was the Asian Zoo. We usually overlook it because I don't figure there's much there. But there are goats and peacocks roaming freely and although Charles wasn't sure about the peacock, especially when it started making noise, he had absolutely no fear of the goats.

Then on to the penguins and the prairie exhibit. I decided to let him walk through the prairie exhibit because it's just a raised walkway with no where to run but forwards or backwards. The bears are the first animal and one of the few we saw today. It seemed like quite a few were "off exhibit" or maybe we were too early for them to be out on display. We noticed bears were loosing hair for the summer and saw firsthand why. While we were down in the viewing area one was standing up next to the rocks scratching his back, just like a human would on the frame of a door.


The gorillas were quite active today. Two from the outdoor exhibit were sitting by the window playing with each other and presumably enjoying the shade. They did some non-aggressive wrestling and Charles was quite tickled when I pointed out their feet (he's got a fascination with Dr. Seuss' Foot Book). On our way out of the exhibit one of the gorillas was down by the stream near the exit. He was eating what looked like a cross between doggie treats and biter biscuits. He held them in both hands, eating one at a time. That wasn't as unusual to see as what he did next. He leaned over and drank from the stream. It reminded me of that Old Testament story where the soldiers are weeded out by how they drank from the river. It's amazing how human-like those creatures seem. I noticed it when we were inside and could watch their eyes. Of course I wouldn't want to meet one of them out in the open!


Then we were on to lions...asleep as usual...followed by the hippos. They were both submerged in the water which is the norm, but one came up to us and opened his mouth and "talked" to us. I think he wanted some food. Wow, are those some amazing mouths. No wonder they're one of the most dangerous creatures in the African rivers. They have pointy teeth sticking straight out right at the front then teeth at the back of their mouths and it looks like they go down the throat. Charles was quite amused and it was even better that he was standing up on the cement barrier holding on to the railing. It's the only way he could see. I was holding him and had this fear we'd loose a shoe. Little feet are the only things that will fit through the bars. And maybe a hand or two.



Now for some pictures.

The peacock showing off

Petting the goat

Reaching through the fence to pet another goat. Good thing they're tame!

Climbing on the fence to get a better view of the goats
More climbing...it was just the beginning

After such a long walk, Charles nodded off in the car but we had a few more errands to run. Target to find a birthday present for uncle Brian so Grandpa & Grandma can deliver it this weekend. Followed by a stop at the bank. Much to my pleasant surprise Charles was in good spirits at Target. He emptied the diaper bag of all snacks and just as we were headed to check out did he begin his I'm done routine which involves throwing things out of the cart. Luckily all we had was our present and two bags--my purse and his diaper bag.