Walruses, Water Parks and Whatever

With gas at an all time record low for the summer- merely $3.98 per gallon- we figured now was a good time to drive all the way into downtown Indy everyday to visit the animals at the zoo. Well, not every day- but twice last week alone. Mind you- everyone else under the sun was also taking advantage of the low fuel expenses and apparently ended up there with us on Wednesday. Wednesday- the safest day to visit anywhere in the universe as 'everyone' else is at work. Apparently not this week. It was apparently 'take everyone you know to the zoo' day. But we were there- so we parked in the middle of no where and made our way in. Our zoo has a fabulous water area- since Dan is still recovering from birthing his kidney stone we decided to just play there for the day instead of truckin all over tarnation to see the animals.

Notice anything- no Sam in this picture you say. That's because he was here:

Just sitting on the fishy table or hanging from our stroller. He is not much for getting water dumped on him or sprayed on. He did spend some time splashing in a small puddle of totally contaminated water, I'm sure. He also investigated the small holes where the water sprays up for a while- but most of the time he was just hanging out with me. Then Emily returned, after 38 seconds of water play- insisting it was time for a snack. See, they know that I smuggle in the contrabanned snacks into the zoo. Who can justify spending $12 on a frozen, microwaved pretzel? So, she is now insisting we bust open the bowl of grapes- she is dying and must have them. Then she spends the next 18 minutes parked next t0 me and Sam while they fight over grapes- who gets to hold the bowl, who has the most, who gets to put the lid on and off and on and off, who gets the water bottle. Geez, we could have eaten grapes and fought at home- but instead it was refreshing to come to the zoo for a change of pace and do it there I suppose. Once the grapes were all consumed (or spilled), Emily went back out for more water park action- Sam still hung out with me and the fish table.

Our second trip to the zoo was for Animals and all that Jazz. The place was a ghost town as everyone was sitting in the concert area. AWESOME! The air was dry and a cooler than previously in the week, a light breeze blowing, soft live jazz music in the background, and no huge crowds to fight. Heaven. But it was free train ride night at the zoo for members, so we headed straight there to get it out of the way. The train ride line was not a ghost town. We waited patiently for about 40 minutes until we got our ride- which Sam LOVED. Off the train- on to animals. Animals you say? All of the animals went off display at 7pm- hysterical I tell you! Oh well, next week we will get there earlier for the jazz thing and hopefully get to them. It's nice in the evenings because it's cooler and dinner time, so the animals are really active.

On to more important things. Emily asked to borrow the camera- here is what she came up with:

A PHOTO MONTAGE BY EMILY

We LOVE the walruses- love them, love them, love them. Surprisingly- Emily got some pretty good pictures of them.

Oh look- a self photo of Emily. I kid you not- every time she takes pictures I end up with these mixed in, what a goof.

Oh- and some still landscape shots- of dead or dying flowers.

A tree, a honda and a trash cart.

And a parking space. I think in this photo Emily is trying to demonstrate the vastness of the air molecules in comparison to the natural placement of the foilage. Of show the interesting mixture of textures. Oh, wait- I get it, she is just pointing our how incredibly narrow the parking spaces are at the zoo.