bloggers ate my babies: next time we're going to the toldeo zoo

every year since hayden was born we've gone to the zoo with the woods. i think we may have missed one year when it was a last minute trip and i was working. this year when i'd tell people we were going to the zoo i was asked "which one? toledo or detroit?" because of the busyness of our family and the woods yesterday we went to the detroit zoo as usual, but we are hoping to get to the toledo zoo next year! i've heard great things about it. things like they actually have animals you can see and aren't always asleep.
we had a great time though. no bears (other than the polar bears) were seen. and the lions and tigers were asleep as usual...as well as most of the other animals.
talan meowed at almost every animal he saw and really seemed to love the penguins that would swim by.
jessica was able to come with us which was great so she could take talan out at times and i could get some pictures of him.
i just asked hayden what his favorite part of the zoo was and he told me "seeing all of the animals and riding the zoo train and playing at the zoo park." so that would pretty much be all of it. i'm surprised he didn't add the "frozen drink" he had as well.
he was pretty well behaved this time and stayed within my view almost the entire time. heather realized ella and hayden make a great team. ella likes to move really slow but she won't move too slow with hayden around. and when hayden gets ahead of himself, ella slows him down.
talan stayed awake the WHOLE time but was out before we even left the zoo parking lot. hayden followed not long after. and when we got home, they were a MESS so they were more than happy to take a bath.
we had a great time despite the lack of animals. thanks for going, partial wood clan and jessica!

the traditional zoo family photo:

and one with jessica:

hayden, ella and henry. henry wore that mask almost the entire day despite the sweat dripping down his face:

hayden recently told jessica he was going to marry ella and she would become ella michael skiver:

henry wanted in on the fun:

gorillas:

the rhino's were sleeping with their eyes open:

hayden and ella (hayden really didn't want his picture taken...surprise):

hayden, ella, henry and talan:

the polar bear was the best part of the trip. he was playing with a ball, playing with another polar bear and at one point was more or less playing peek-a-boo with everyone in the tunnel. here he was standing on the tunnel:

my things:

um, there's a dead seal behind you:

henry, ellanore, hayden and talan:

the ice wall:

we threw him in:

i found this funny:

playing in the prairie dog tunnels (hayden informed us that he saw prairie dogs AND prairie cats). jessica almost got stuck. or had a claustrophobic attack. or both: