Yesterday we went to the zoo with my friend Stephanie. It was such a fun day!

Annalie was super excited to be going to a new zoo. I hadn’t been to this zoo in a decade so I was pretty excited myself, mainly because of the skyride. I love skyrides.

Stephanie, her parents, and her sister, brother-in-law and nephews were all here for a family vacation, and they invited us to join them at the zoo the last day they were here.

One of the nice things about living in a place where other people spend their vacations is that you get to see more out-of-town friends that way! And when people do come visit, you get to do all kinds of fun touristy things with them.

Since I fully expect we will want to visit the zoo often, I bought a dual membership for Annalie and me. (Troy never has to pay to get into the zoo; he just has to show his active-duty military ID and his admission is free.) If we visit the zoo twice in the next year, the membership will have paid for itself and then some. I think it’s safe to say we will get our money’s worth.

I had not seen Stephanie since we left Tempe, and it was really good to catch up with her in between checking out the koalas and the pandas and all the other animals. The kids had fun doing a little coloring and riding the skyride and petting the goats.

In fact, I was rather amazed at how nonchalant Annalie was about the goats. The last time we went to a petting zoo she was very hesitant about going near the animals but this time she charged right in and darted around petting any animal that was standing still. She even picked up some hay and fed it to one of the goats. Once a large goat hopped down off a wall right behind her and she jumped a foot in the air but immediately laughed and said, “Wow, that goat really scared me!” Then she chased it around with a handful of hay.

As for the skyride, I half expected her to tell me she was too scared to go on it, but she didn’t show even a hint of nervousness as we waited in line and watched the gondolas arrive at the station and leave with new passengers. When it was our turn, she climbed right in, sat down, and immediately starting exclaiming over how high we were and how much we could see. When our ride ended, Annalie skipped down the ramp and announced that her favorite part of the zoo was the skyride.

I told her I was really happy she had enjoyed it, and explained that since we bought a membership and wouldn’t have to buy tickets to the zoo or the skyride for a whole year, we could just drop by the zoo, ride the skyride, and then go home if we wanted to! She thought that was a great idea.

After I took the previous photo Annalie said, “Oh! I’d better take my sunglasses off so you can see me better,” and let me take another picture. Cracked me up.

After a fun afternoon, we decided we had better head home before traffic got too bad. We said good-bye to our friends. Annalie took a couple of photos before we made the trek to the far end of the parking lot. We headed home, tired but happy.

Photo by Annalie, age 4.

About five minutes into our 20-minute drive home, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Annalie had fallen asleep, the bag of goldfish crackers she’d asked for sitting unopened in her lap. Nothing says “good day” like a kid needing a nap on the way home.

For more photos see the set Zoo day! in my Flickr photostream.