The sweetness of this child ...

Thursday, June 6:  Due to Brendan's graduation tonight, we switched days this week with Kaity. So I picked Brendan up from school today and we drove over to the zoo. Since Kaity and I'd had so much fun there yesterday, I wanted to show all of the new zoo stuff to Brendan too.

 Here we are at the John Ball Zoo Gem Company, panning for gems. Good job, Brendan!

We said "hi" to Sue and Roger, the American turtles--but neither one was being very sociable today.

 We walked up the pathway, under the waterfall, and up the zillion steps to the tippy-top of the zoo where I introduced Brendan to Wasabi, the female Red Panda and told him the story of ... everything!

It was one of those perfect weather days today at the zoo, AND it was not the least bit crowded! We practically had the place to ourselves much of the time. We wandered around and looked at as much as we wanted. Right about here (at the top of the zoo, near the tiger habitat) Brendan quietly requested one of those "dot" ice cream treats. He was so sweet about it, that I bought him one. I had never tried one of these or really seen them before. Since we are zoo members, we got a discount and paid $4.50 for one cup of these ice cream dots. Brendan chose the cookies and cream one. Note to self:  This cut of dots was WAY over priced. Next time--bring plenty of yummy treats to distract! To Brendan's credit, though, he ate every bite and seemed to enjoy it--although not hugely like he enjoys the ice cream over at Culver's (which is tons better).

 Brendan explored a little bit over in this area. It's a nice place to play. We even tried hide 'n seek!

 One of the tigers came over and got friendly with us. There were fallen branches preventing the tiger from getting close to the window, which was disappointing because I felt it surely would have come closer.

 Brendan made claws with his hands to try to let the tiger know he could take care of himself should it be necessary.

 Here we are over at the lion habitat ... this picture did NOT turn out. I thought I would be able to lighten Brendan's face on my photo program, but it didn't help very much.

 After our time at the zoo, we stopped by McDonald's to get a happy meal. Brendan had to eat it pretty quickly because we had a deadline ...

... it was time to go home, change clothes and zoom over to Trinitas for graduation!