The Zoo

Shelley, Chet, Zane, Martha, Josh, Zach, Mindy, Gabe, Zoe and I all went to the Portland Zoo on Thursday. I met Rachel in Albany to pick up Gabe then we went up to Wilsonville to drop off my car to get an oil change. Of course, we were late doing all that but it worked out 'cause then Shelley and Martha were right behind us. So we drop off my car and load all the kids up in Shelley's suburban. Zane is starting to get hungry but we're thinking we can make it to the zoo and then feed him. Halfway up Hwy. 217 Gabe starts wiggling in his car seat and saying he needs to go potty. And of course, when a 3 year old needs to go, he NEEDS to go! So we pull over on the side of the road with loads of traffic going by us and we make it just in time so there are no accidents. Mindy calls in the middle of this (Zane is bawling by this time!) so Shelley is trying to answer the phone and handle the other 3 kids in the car. Martha is following us so she pulls over too and then we have to merge back into the traffic. Of course, she doesn't know where we're going and her cell phone isn't working so we're trying not to lose her and I know we're supposed to go East on Hwy. 26 but I'm thinking East is actually West so we take 26 West and immediately I know its the wrong way so we have to go all the way out to Murray Blvd. before we can turn around. Chet is now pretty upset that he can't have his lunch box in his lap and Zoe and Gabe are fighting over books in the back seat! We finally make it to the Zoo at 11am where the kids pile out of the car and us mom's are already exhausted! It was a beautiful day though - warm and sunny with a slight breeze. And thank goodness for Mindy or else we probably would have called it a day a lot earlier!

Finally out of the car...and into a stroller!

Checking out the fish

There is a bad glare on this picture and the kids wouldn't all look the same way and Gabe is refusing to get off the tractor! And this was only 20 min. into our zoo excursion!

Riding a horse


This was a petting zoo area with some goats that the kids thought was pretty neat. They figured out that the goats would eat the hay from the bales sitting around so they started pulling off handfuls of hay and feeding them...not sure if we were supposed to do that or not!


Zoe zonked out after lunch

The monkeys were pretty entertaining

Picking lice

Gabe riding a hippo

This giraffe was pretty cute and rather small so it must be a baby

We were walking out towards the exit and we just happened to read this plaque on the bench...very cool!


After a LONG day we're still smiling!!


I was planning on dropping off Gabe at Mom & Dad's and then staying the night there to watch him while Mom was at work on Friday and Rachel was in San Diego so Ryan decided he was going to go hunting all day Thursday and Friday. He calls me while we're at the dealership exchanging carseats in the cars with the news that "you can have the baby now!" He got a 4 point bull elk at about 8am that morning was heading back into town to get some help to pack it out. He is very excited!

This one I think is funny 'cause he looks like Peter Pan!

This motivates Will to go camping out in the woods on Friday night so Ryan decides to join him. I don't want to go home to an empty house so I stay at M & D's one more night and at about 9pm last night I get a call that Ryan just shot a bear! I'm posting this as soon as I got home on Sat. morning so I haven't even seen Ryan yet (he's out hunting again with Will) or the bear. Keep checking back for more pictures!