First Summer Outing - The Zoo

Monday was the start of Wesley's summer vacation. We joined our neighbor and friend LeeSa and her children at the National Zoo. It was my first time taking all three kids to a zoo without Chris. I think the outing went really well.

The four older children walked around the zoo holding hands most of the time.
Here is a cute little prairie dog.

We saw lots of animals but I didn't take that many photos. I also didn't take a lot of pictures of the kids.

I like the way this picture of the tiger turned out with my digital SLR camera.

I still haven't cleaned the lens so you can see the debris on it in this next picture. (Oh yeah, I was reading a book on how to use my camera but I stopped reading it months ago. Maybe I should get back to it.)

After we ate our picnic lunch, we saw an orangutan out on the o-line.

It is very hard to get a picture of five children all looking at the camera and not making silly faces.

Part of the new elephant area is open.

With a little sunscreen on his head and in his hair, Josiah can have a nice mohawk.

Yep, I think these two had a great day at the zoo.

Lydia and Josiah fell asleep on the way home. I carried Lydia in from the car and put her in bed. She slept for over 90 minutes. Josiah did not continue his nap once we were home.

Wesley told me several times after we got home that he was bored, but I chose to ignore his complaints since I have heard that is good for kids to have some "boring time" to figure out other things to do.

He read one of our children's Bible to himself! Yippee!

I have to say that after only two days off from school, I realized why parents sign up their school aged kids for a lot of camps. I want it to be a fun summer with a lot of family together time but it has been a rough adjustment for him this week. I think he misses the structure and activities of school.