A Trip to the Zoo for Lily's Birthday

Today was Lily's 4th birthday. After breakfast at IHOP in Everett, we dropped my mom (a.k.a. Grammie "O") off at SeaTac airport. Then, we drove back north into Seattle for a surprise visit to the Woodland Park Zoo. The weather here has been glorious for weeks (Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!!!), and we wanted to take advantange of it. Above you can see Aidan, me, and Lily in front of the flamingo exhibit. You can't see it, but I, also, am standing on one leg.

There was a play area where you can experience some animal habitats. Here's me trying on a turtle shell for size. I found it to be claustrophobic.

But Aidan seemed to like it.

So did Lily.

Here's Lily Ping with her pal King. Kong, that is.

And in this shot, the gorilla is the one in the front, in case you were wondering. Aidan was a little freaked out by the statues. After seeing the real gorillas, I think he thought these, too, were real.

"Can I pet the kitty, daddy?"

Here's a lovely flower and our son Aidan. Oh, yes, and a blue orchid, too.

Aidan dug the cookies. (Not out of the garbage. I meant he liked them.)

And Lily slurped down her refreshing "Itsakadoozie!" popsicle.

Aidan and Lily busted a move while listening to the funky music coming from the loudspeakers.

Our fearless safari leader made friends with another zoo animal, as you can see.

We also stopped by to check out the elephants.

The zoo also had a very cool (no pun intended) penguin exhibit.

We ended the day with sandwiches from Subway and more sundaes at home with the ice cream left over from Lily's party on Sunday. Earlier, Lily got four "high fives" and a pinch to grow and inch. She made sure to reciprocate on my backside throughout the day.

Lily said, "I can't believe I'm four!" I can't either. It seems like it was yesterday when she was just a little 10 month old baby being placed in my arms for the first time.