I'll try to only post photos that have a story that goes with it!

For some reason my children are fascinated with the puffins!  When Kaitlyn was about 4 she received a wooden puzzle that spells out her name (KATIE actually...  but she prefers to be called Kaitlyn or Kait) and at the end of her name was a little wooden puffin.  I THINK this started the interest, but I am not sure!  Anyway, everytime we go to the zoo the children all claim there is one puffin who always comes to the edge to greet them.  They call him "PUFFY" and they all start squealing, "OH, there's Puffy! Hi PUFFY!" 

I just now asked them if this picture shows Puffy or not and Ian, Hannah and Noah all agree that this one is INDEED Puffy!

This is the first time the children were really interested in the penguins...  They love the penguins in the movie Madagascar and they were playing a game they call "Bird Theater" while they watched the penguins that day.  "Bird Theater" is when they make up voices and dialogue for birds, animals or even humans that they are observing...  it all started when my dh was driving around Walmart parking lot one day waiting for me to run a quick errand and the baby (now 6 years old) started crying for mommy.  So he began to make up voices and story lines for the birds to occupy her!  Then, it became a tradition.

Anyway, they were sure these penguins were planning a "zoo break" just like the penguins in Madagascar and they had me in stitches b/c it really did seem like the penguins were planning something.  Then...  now this was weird...  the penguins started making a loud noise that sounded...  I am not exaggerating... they were braying like donkeys!  It was very loud and definitely not a sound I expected to hear from penguins!!!!

This porcupine,who's name is CACTUS JACK",  is part of the Wildlife Show in the ampitheater.  This particular day was VERY cold (for Washington anyway) and an icy rain began (it snowed that night). Because there were not many people at the zoo that day we were able to get some behind-the-scenes kind of stuff while the staff were working with the animals.  This day, Cactus Jack was practicing walking a particular path across the stage.  We watched for about 15 minutes! 

We also got to watch a great session with the walruses, but I did not get good photos of that.  It was fascinating and I had no idea that walruses were so intelligent.

When we got to the aquarium part of the zoo a large shark ATE all five of the children...  but they managed to escape!!! 

Hannah loves the sharks and was almost in tears waiting for us to get to the shark tank!  Here are Ian, Hannah and Jordan watching a sand shark! 

This one really doesn't have much of a story, but I just loved the way Noah is starting to transition from being "one of the littles" to being one of the "big kids"!!!  Here he is telling Hannah all about tigers!

Here kitty, kitty, kitty.  Actually, the tiger seemed kind of discontent.  He was roaring in such a mournful way at one point that it made me sad.  He sure is beautiful though.  Ian has a jungle themed bedroom and I think I will have an 8x10 made of this photo and frame it for his wall.

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO!

This little chimpy seemed to be enjoying watching us as much as we were enjoying watching him.  You should have seen him swinging and hanging and jumping all over the place.  Hannah started singing "Upside Down" from The Curious George Movie! 

After hot cocoa and hot pretzels we ended the day with our first (and probably last...  it was expensive) ride on the zoo's carousel.  Hannah found my favorite animal...  a BELUGA!!!!!  She also loves belugas because she danced to the song "Baby Beluga" the very first year that she was in ballet and tap.

Ian found a tiger...  or ti-GOW...  as we call them (that's a story for another day.)  Notice the beluga painting above Ian's head...  there was some really beautiful artwork on this carousel.

Ian was happy with the ti-GOW until he noticed a COUGAR!

 He also loves cougars, but since cougars have been spotted in our neighborhood a few times he also has a bit of a phobia of them...  but don't tell him I said that!  Right in front of this cougar was a husky...  when he saw that he was going to switch again, but by then the carousel was moving so he stayed put.  For those of you who are Washingtononians you will understand his consternation when he realized he had chosen a COUGAR over a HUSKY...  oh the shame!!! 

(Washington State University Cougars and University of Washington Huskies are fierce competitiors and we are a HUSKY family since my dh went to UW for a few years and also because Ian's teacher last year, in his only year of public school, had a Husky themed classroom and worked hard to promote UW and college in general to the class!)

You can see the head of the husky behind Jordan in this photo. 

Jordan chose a bench instead of a moving animal.  With his Asperger's Syndrome he really struggles with coordination and this was just easier for him... plus it had a lot of YELLOW, Jordan's favorite color!

Kaitlyn, always the artistic type, loved the SEA HORSE...  it is kind of hard to tell in this photo, but this horse has a fish tail (kind of like a mermaid).  She looked so graceful and poised.  It is amazing how fast she is becoming a young woman.  Where did my little girl go????

So, there you have it, a rainy day at the zoo and you didn't even get cold and wet!!!

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