The Jones Family Junction: An afternoon with Kaity and Jo-Jo

Thursday, June 6, 2019

An afternoon with Kaity and Jo-Jo

Wednesday, June 5: Kaity had a half day at school today (tomorrow is her last day of Kindergarten). I picked her up at noon and asked her what she wanted to do and she said she thought it would be "nice" to visit the zoo. Great idea, Kaity-Girl!

This was Kaity's first 2019 visit to the zoo. Jo-Jo was in Kaity's school backpack and Kaity invited her to join us on our outing. We got out my umbrella stroller and buckled Jo-Jo safely in for our zoo adventure. We saw the pelicans for awhile ...

The zoo has TWO mute swans now! I don't remember them from last year. Perhaps they are new.

We went into the penguin place to show Jo-Jo what penguins looked like (I didn't get very good photos of the penguins) ...

What on earth is that face about, Kaity? Oh! I remember. Kaity saw that there were shiny pennies in the bottom of this small water enclosure and she asked me if I had any for her to throw in. I did NOT have any pennies with me. She was irked--that's what her expression is reflecting--her annoyance.

There is a NEW exhibit now at the zoo. It's called the John Ball Zoo Gem Company. Children can "pan" for their own gems!

Since we are zoo members, we get a 10% discount on all zoo stuff, so we paid $4.50 for a small bag to put Kaity's panned treasures in. She had such a blast doing this. I love to see the smile on her face. Beautiful, Kaity. They even give you an identification sheet so that you can discover what all the names of the gems are! Kaity enjoyed this little adventure from start to finish.

We went looking for the budgies, but it's still too cold for them. The zoo had a little difficulty this year getting them ready, but word is that they will be out in mid-June. Meanwhile, in the place where they USUALLY are, there are two American Turtles. Meet Sue and her mate, Roger. Sue is 23 years old and still considered quite "young" for this kind of turtle.

Kaity had her pretty pink tennis shoes on with some kind of berry picture on the top front of them--do you see it? Anyway, we found out that Sue's favorite food in all the world is STRAWBERRIES, so she kept coming after Kaity's shoes to get a BITE!

We continued our zoo exploring all the way up to the red panda exhibit because we were very excited to meet ...

WASABI! The new red panda. She is two years old. Wylie is six now. Wasabi checked out as a very good mate for Wylie. Red Pandas are generally loners and do not want anyone else in their habitat. Wasabi was introduced to Wylie just a short while ago and they are already sharing this habitat. The zoo workers said they are very hopeful that by next summer, there will be baby red pandas (2)! That would be super cool.

Kaity usually races through the zoo in 30 minutes flat. Well, that's how she was LAST year. But not today! We strolled around for TWO hours and enjoyed ourselves completely.

The tigers were uncooperative today. They were both sleeping, but that was OK.

I told Kaity from the get-go that if she wanted the umbrella stroller for baby Jo-Jo that she would have to be responsible for it throughout the zoo. Here she is getting Jo-Jo down a bunch of stairs.

The gift store is always a huge hit with Kaity. Her birthday list is HUMUNGOUS. I have to keep reminding her that I have a budget! Don't worry, I will stick to it! I reminded pouty-faced Kaity that we DID get a bag of her very own panned gems, AND we also made one of those fancy penny things ...

Kaity very politely asked if she could play at the playground here at the zoo. YES! Go play, Kaity!

Kaity climbed and climbed on this neat piece of equipment. She is an excellent and fearless climber. I love to see her in action. She is pretty amazing.

When we finally got home to my place, Kaity requested that we get out our Stomp Rockets and have a contest to see whose could zoom farthest. Somehow, Kaity managed to "win" every single time. Although her method of measurement was a little bit ... prejudiced in her favor.