i took the kids to the zoo this morning because i decided i need to be more active and it was only a little bit rainy, so why not? and last night i made the mistake of telling ellen that maybe we'll go the zoo sometime next week. she woke up pumped and ready to go today. so we went today. isaiah's been several times, but this was the first time that he got very excited to see the animals. his favorites were the bats and the monkeys i think. ellen made good use of her binoculars that she got at christmas. on the way there, she kept saying "maybe we'll see an elephant doing this (making the sign for pooping)" because last time we were there we got the full show. she talks about that experience quite a bit actually. alas, the elephants were just playing and there was no poop show. i forgot about that little phenomenon called "the fieldtrip". that place was packed. packed packed. it started to rain after we'd been there for about an hour and all the field trip chaperones made dashes for covered exhibits and places to eat lunch. so we did get to see several animals without lovely (but unaware) seven year old bodies acting as filters. notice the binoculars being used to properly see the polar bear that is three feet away. and at this point she's checking out the boy that's standing in front of us.