The Zoo Part I

I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling, history-curriculum-creating, chaeffeuring, cooking, cleaning and laundry-sorting Mom. 

Surrounding me all day, every day are three noisy, messy and hungry boys who are always talking, always wanting something, always needing to go somewhere, always bouncing off the walls.

Even so, I wouldn't trade the shoes in the middle of the floor, the piles of laundry in front of the dryer, the filthy bathrooms, or the bikes and debris scattered across the yard for all of the clean, quiet and boy-empty houses in the world.

 (Although I would like my house to stay clean for more than a few hours once in a while!)

I love my boys. And when they are not here I feel like a part of me is missing.

This week that part is Elijah.

He left on Sunday for a week at Boy Scout camp, and I have spent the last 48 hours missing his constant chatter.

I miss him.

In anticipation of a week without Elijah, and because Aaron had absolutely no clue what real animals look like, we decided to spend a nice Saturday afternoon at the Richmond Zoo.

If you live in Virginia and haven't seen the Richmond Zoo (and if you can afford it-- we couldn't, but went anyway), we recommend it highly!

Aaron went on overload a few minutes after we got there.  There was so much to see! 

Although he looked at everything we pointed out to him, he tended to focus on the more familiar.

He ignored the orangutans out on the island, and instead focused on the large fish who were chowing down on the bits of food he was tossing into the water.

And while we were checking out these beautiful creatures.....

Aaron was focused on a man driving a tractor and a wagon in the fenced in area behind them.

If you ask Aaron what he thought of the zoo, he will immediately start talking about the train and the sky lift.

He rode the sky lift like a pro, swinging his feet with the best of them! Stunned us!

Yep, the rides were his favorite. However, there WERE some magical moments with Aaron and the animals, and I have pictures to prove it....

But those, Aaron fans, are for another post.