Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

Yesterday we once again packed up the car, Cade, and the dogs and headed out to San Diego. Well, we dropped the dogs off at 'daycare' first. I must say that I am getting pretty good at packing all of us up with all of this practice. I have to laugh because it used to take me forever to pack for myself. Now I use that time to focus on packing for Cade and I allot about 15 minutes max for myself. I just throw a few things in a bag and figure I can make it work if I forgot anything. Spoken like a true mom, eh?

We arrived in Downtown San Diego around 3:30pm. We checked into the hotel, got situated in our room and turned on the tube for a bit. We then got ready and headed out to hit the town... well, if that's what you call it with a 4 month old in tow:) We basically walked over to check out the new Hard Rock Hotel, walked around for about 30 minutes, and then found a place for dinner. We totally painted the town red. The town never looked the same once we were done with it.. hee hee! Actually we were home by 7pm. Here are my boys relaxing before bed... Cade showing off his shirt... it says, ' When I Grow Up I Want To Surf Like My Daddy'.

Cade had a little accident down south so we needed to give him a bath. Unfortunately, his bathtub was not on the packing list so had to make due in the sink. Not bad, huh?

My favorite part of bath time...drying off my Angel Boy and making him snug as a bug in a rug !

This morning the human alarm clock woke me up at 5:45am so I decided to head downstairs to the complimentary breakfast. When I came back, here is what I found. Why oh why can I NEVER fall back asleep like these 2 can ?

At least I had about 30 minutes to myself to get ready and pack up before they woke up. I had to get us all ready for our big day.... at....The.....

It was really cold so we all had about 3 layers on. First stop, the flamingos!

Quick break for a family photo!

Cade posing as a monkey:)

Look what Brad found!?

Crazy how big these guys are!

This was my absolute favorite animal today! This cutie looked like a little teddy bear. His name is Gao Gao. He is 20 yrs old and weighs 180 lbs. Fun fact: pandas are fertile only 2 days per year and this guy has never missed an opportunity to become a daddy.

Love how you see him using his hand here...

Funny story... we saw this guy out walking around and I was freaking out thinking he had escaped. I found the closest zoo keeper to inform him of this 'problem'. Turns out they are always allowed to walk amongst the crowd. Darn! I thought I was going to be a hero!

Once I knew they were not dangerous, we got close enough to snap a pic:)

Oh! This was so neat... my 2nd favorite part... the gorillas! When we walked up, this guy was lounging RIGHT UP AGAINST the glass! Check out his foot! It is crazy how much it looks like a hand.

This was his buddy... Just chillin'...

Too bad Cade was pooped and taking a nap of his own! Do you see the gorilla snoozing right against the glass?

Ha! Same gorilla... not modest at all. Spread eagle (those are his legs wide open). This guy is not worried about the airport body scan in the least! Hee hee

Rhino....

A camel... just checkin' out what's going on on the other side of that wall! Such a nosey little

(I mean 'big') guy! Turns out we learned something new today. The humps store fat -not water.
This was crazy! The guy in the black was giving us a tutorial on this elephant. He has been with the elephant for 18 years so they have a strong bond/trust. It was so neat to watch them interact with each other. He weighs 13,5000 lbs and eats 115,000 calories per meal! They only sleep 3 hrs a day so that they can get their food. Not bad, huh? Wish I could eat 115,000 calories per meal!

What a great day we had! We loved reading all of the fun/interesting facts about all of the animals. We are loving that Brad is home with us this week so that we can do fun activities such as this. We are definitely thankful for this as we celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends & family.