Family trip to the zoo

We went to the zoo this week. You would have thought we were going to Disney World. My kids were so excited! I think a big reason was because I was calling it a "field trip" which meant they didn't have to do homeschool that day. It's so easy to make things special when our kids are young.

So, this zoo is the national zoo of Lima, called "Parque Las Leyendas" or Park of Legends or Legend Park, or something like that. It is a big, beautiful zoo, with lots of green areas and is built around some ancient ruins.

This was our third trip to this particular zoo, so we felt like experts and remembered where everything was and how crowded it gets. Well, my genius husband suggested we go backward through the zoo to avoid the crowds of school kids, also on field trips. It was the best thing we did - we started at the end and basically had the whole park to ourselves until about 3/4 of the way through when we ran into the masses going the right way!

Olivia's favorite animals were the tigers and the leopards. She was so sad on previous trips to see a tiger and a lion in cages (I also couldn't figure that one out) but this time, they were in huge and beautiful African-like areas, with bamboo trees and waterfalls. She was much happier this time. Kyall's favorite were the pumas. He was a picture-taking maniac. He has only had his camera for a few months, so was so happy to get as many pictures as he could! Lucas said all the animals were his favorite except the "burping" sea lion. Seriously, the whole 10 minutes we spent looking at this enormous sea lion, he made loud, burping noises over and over. We laughed so hard! He was awesome.

I felt like I was supposed to be teaching the kids something since this was a "field trip" but after trying and failing, just decided to enjoy the gorgeous day with the family. Oh, btw, my favorite animal was definitely the tiger. The fences constructed at one place had us literally two feet away from him, the closest I'd ever been and he was fascinating to watch.

The animals were so cool, but cooler still was just marveling at God's handiwork and watching my kids' faces light up.

Miriam