School has started back up and so have our weekly dates with Valerie. While the older cousins get a good start on their week of homeschooling, the "littles" and I get to go play. The last two weeks we've spent the morning at the zoo. Thanks to the family pass from Grandma and Grandpa Beck - and since Valerie is only 3 and therefore still free - it makes for a fabulessly cheap morning! Just $3 for all of them to ride the carrousel and 50 cents for me to feed the sheep and goats.
We get there right when it opens and pretty much have the place to ourselves. Instead of having to pull the kids off the safari jeep screeching (the kids screeching, not me - well, at least most of the time it isn't me) they can play on it until they get bored! It's fantastic!! The monkies are totally active, the sloth bear is sitting by the window to get fed, and the red pandas are pacing instead of holed up in their cave.
