A trip to the zoo with Mom

Michelle’s mom came in to town for a quick visit last night. We took her over to the zoo to check out a new penguin exhibit that is being sponsored by our company. The zoo opened up for the evening from 4:30 to 8:00 and gave employees and their families free admission. Mom gets quite a bit of pain in her back when she stands or walks for a long time, so we rented a wheelchair for her and Jeff pushed her around all over the zoo. We got to see most of it – the bears were swimming and climbing on their rocks, the giraffes were trying to pluck leaves off the trees in their enclosure, the elephants and hippos were out and about, the gorillas were climbing their trees. I think it’s really fun to be able to go to the zoo in the evening when all the animals are being active after the heat of the day wears off. I don’t know why they close our zoo at 5:00 each day, because it’s so much cooler to see the animals at night.

Anyway, the best part of this particular visit to the zoo turned out to be the lions. They weren’t moving around, but we have a lion cub right now, and he was sitting up on a rock with his mom and dad, posed just perfectly for viewing and for pictures. Very cool.


The penguins, on the other hand, were a bit disappointing. They didn’t move the whole time we were there watching. I think they’re in shock from being placed on exhibit for the first time. At least they held still for the camera! It was nice to spend time with Mom out and about. I don’t think we’ll get to have many more opportunities like this before her body gives up and she goes on to heaven.