A day at the zoo

I had planned on today being the first day of school, but the first day of school turned into a field trip:)

I have been super stressed lately. I have a lot on my mind and I have a new work schedule that I am still getting used to. The past few days and days coming up are stressing me out because all of my shifts are scheduled very close together so I didn't get to see Brennan the last 2 days and that does not make me happy. It's one thing if it's for a short vacation, but when I feel like it could be a routine or something, that just does not work for me. So I hadn't seen him since Saturday night until last night when I got off work. I had a horrible day at work and  I could not wait to get home from work to see him. I got home and went to give him a hug and he pushed me away. Just being a kid with a little attitude at the moment, but I just broke down. All I could think about all day was getting home to him and I know kids act like that sometimes, but I was just so upset. We ended up reading some books together and played some games, but then it was time for bed. 

So today I was off and it was our day together. I decided to take him to the zoo because the weather is so nice and I just wanted to do something fun and neither of us be distracted by anything else, just the two of us. It was such a nice day and we had so much fun together! The weather was perfect!

This is him at the new Sea Lion exhibit-very exciting stuff! I adore this sweet face!

It is a tunnel, similar to the one we went through for the sharks at Sea World. It was pretty cool:)

We learned about Sea Lion skulls and talked about how black their teeth get because they obviously can't brush them!

The hippos were right against the glass so we could really see them well. The fish were cleaning the hippos so I was explaining how they had a mutually beneficial relationship. I was trying to think of the term symbiosis and could not think of it! Oh well, we did do a little learning since we skipped school today:)

I had originally planned to make today the first day of school, but since I am working tomorrow and have a meeting Thursday I thought we couldn't really get a routine down with one day of school so I want to wait until we can have at least a couple of days in a row. We are still doing school stuff, but I have some fun stuff planned for the first day-like make a big deal first day, so I want to wait to officially start. I'm sure it doesn't make sense, but in my nervous, stressed out brain it does:)

Hyenas, I know they've always been there, but not sure we've ever seen them. I wanted Brennan to see them because we are going to Lion King at The Fox this month:)  They really do look mean. These two were fighting so we got a little show.

We looked at some bones and saw a giant elephant leg bone and compared it to our leg bone.

It is so funny how enthralled people get over animals going to the bathroom. I mean, I suppose 5 gallons of pee and 50lbs of poop coming out of an animal is pretty impressive, but jeesh people. Brennan got a kick out of it, but he is a kid!

A very nice lady offered to take our picture. I totally took her up on it because I wanted at least one picture of us:)

We really got to see almost all of the animals really close and in action.

Brennan was entertained by this thing the longest. It had information inside and I was trying to read it to him, he let me read about 3 of them before I got cut off. He is usually willing to learn, but when he is done he is done! He just wanted to run back and forth and lift them and pretend they were something to go along with his action-adventure antics. Play away!

This guy was lazing around. It was so nice for them to be so close, Brennan spent a long time studying the animals and what they were doing. Thankfully the ones he wanted to watch were doing anything too nasty, some of the others on the other hand-yuck!

Got up close and personal with a leopard:)

Turtle and he loved the snakes!

Brennan found a penny and wanted to throw it in the water. As I watched the penny go in, I thought I forgot to tell him to make a wish. Just then, he turned around and said "I wished for you to be my best friend forever." and gave me a hug. Seriously, tears right now thinking about it. I could not ever explain how amazing this little boy is and how happy he makes me. I needed this day with him and felt so relieved to have this time with just him:)