California Trip - Continued

On the second day we were in California, we took a trip to the Los Angeles Zoo. We had never been to the Zoo before so it was pretty exciting!

When we got there I got my camera out to take pictures of the seals, but it felt a lot lighter than usual. That's when I realized there was no battery! It's the kind that takes the rechargeable battery. It was close to running out so Jared took it out to recharge it and I didn't notice when I packed it. Ugh! There was no way I was going to not document Ryan's first trip to the Zoo so we paid the insane price of $13 for a disposable camera. The pictures turned out pretty bad, but at least we have them! This experience makes me so glad for digital. Oh and my mom mentioned to me when she brought a scanner over, "You could've just got a digital cd of the pictures when you developed them." Yes Mom, that's a great idea! An idea too late! lol. She thought about it after I had dropped off the camera. I didn't even think about that!

We went with Jared's Dad and his nieces and nephew, Lauren, Madilyn, and Michael. It was so much fun to hang out with those kids. We hardly get to see Lauren and Michael so it's so fun to hang out and get to know each other a little bit better. All the kids were amazing with Ryan. Michael was definitely one of his favorites. He was always making sure that Ryan was having fun and being taken care of. I didn't have to take him outside much because Michael would always come up to me asking if he could take him out. I loved it!

So now for the ZOO!

The first thing we saw was the flamingos. I must say that Ryan actually liked these. How could you not? Huge pink birds!? Definitely would catch any one's eye.

They had lots of monkeys at the Zoo. Seriously SO many! Although, there were a lot that we couldn't see because they were hiding. We did get to see some Gorillas up close. The grossest thing happened with them though - of course - there were two of them cleaning each other and then one came up to the one in front and put him butt up in his face. I bet you can guess what a good monkey would do. YEP! The gorilla started picking his butt and eating it! I know that may be too much information, but this is for memories sake! He was eating the other monkey's butt. The kids loved it though. It definitely was a highlight of the trip!

There was a lion roaring and you could hear it from all over. We went to check it out. He was just walking around growling/roaring. Ryan started to copy him and roar too. It was pretty cute! The poor lion sounded like he was lonely and looking for someone. I could imagine his mate was delivering babies and he had to wait outside impatiently. Yeah, I have a good imagination. :)

Here is the stroller Kari let us borrow. She got it out for us and then when we got there we realized the tires were flat! I thought we were going to have to fork out some more money to rent a stroller, but luckily they had an air pump we could use! Yay! Ryan did so good sitting in the stroller. We didn't even have to buckle him in!

Looking at the Koala Bears

We also saw kangaroo's...

and wild dogs. This is the best picture we could get. They were running back and forth in the back.

We saw giraffes trying to eat from tall trees. Their tongues are LONG!

We saw lots of gazelles, zebras, rhinos, hippopotamus, and other safari like animals.

I think this is supposed to be a picture with another monkey... but your guess is as good as mine! :)

The kids played with Ryan at this little playground they had. It was nice to take a break from walking. It also had some sprayers that the kids loved!

The kids were exhausted!!! They fell asleep instantly! (Okay Ryan really is the only one sleeping, the other kids pretended for me. :)

We had fun at the Zoo. It made me really want to go to Hogle Zoo here in Salt Lake. Hopefully I'll do that some time soon because their zoo is awesome! Maybe my mom can take us! Right Mom? :)

Here are some more pictures. I had some left on the camera and gave it to the kids to take. There were a few others but they were too dark to see anything. :)