London Zoo

Not everyone could be as lucky as this little man and have their own personal seat on the way to London. It was an amazing time with the family...amazingly frustrating and stressful, but I guess when the kids say they had a great time it is all worth it.

We started our journey at the end of the line of the Tube in Epping. We got on the 'train' and were having a great time zooming down the way to London. The kids thought it was fantastic and every time we stopped at a station they would say, "do we get off now?" Alas, when we got to London the true fun began. We didn't know there was a football match(soccer game for you Americans reading) at Wembley that day, but we soon learned the hard way that when West Ham plays the whole of east London(where the typical West Ham fan lives) head to the west to cheer on their team. It was a sight to see for sure, and makes me wonder just how it will be when the Olympics are here. There were fans cheering, singing, and chanting throughout the tube stations and in the tube itself. The kids thought this was a little frightening because it was very busy!!! I wanted a picture--but I also didn't want to let go of my children. Mike and I thought it was great, no one was being violent or belligerent, it was just loud and crazy! So once we conquered the tube we were walking through Regent Park to get to the London Zoo. Carter about died of excitement when he looked in the air and saw this blimp, "for REAL, for the FIRST TIME EVER, FOR REAL MOM AND DAD!!!" So I had him point to the air just right and he kept wondering what he was doing until he saw the picture and thought it was pretty cool that he was almost 'touching' the blimp. Look hard because honestly you can hardly see it in the picture.

The London Zoo was having a "Special Children's Day" event and we thought it the perfect time to go because it saved us over half the entrance cost. However, special event+regular day visitors=VERY BUSY!! It was stressful trying to make sure our children were having fun, but not getting lost. Mason was having one of his days where he wants to whine and cry the whole day through. Honestly, we are having more and more of these days as he gets older, and they seem to be triggered by large crowds, tons of noise, or a big change in our normal routine.

Taylor's favourite thing had to be a couple of owls that we saw. She has been studying owls at school, and her class adopted an owl named Taiga at a sanctuary, so she was all about that owl and needed a picture with it.

Taylor and Brennan had to have a little time out so they missed out on petting the goats, but Carter loved every second of it! He was really excited to be at the zoo-and said his favourite thing might have been the hippo's, or the monkeys.

Like I said, Mason was really crabby the whole day!! Okay, okay I admit, he was happy for about an hour--or when we were having food. So I guess the whole day is not giving him enough credit. Poor guy just couldn't seem to enjoy himself.

We thought the Pelican's were pretty neat. Mike and I both don't remember ever seeing a pelican that close and we didn't realize just how large a bird they were.

The top of the wood platform lay the lion. Taylor and Brennan had to go to the toilet just after this picture was taken and Mike was taking them while I stayed with the others. That is when the lioness and lion got up and were walking around right near the glass--it was pretty awesome. Although I wasn't able to get a picture because Mason needed one on one at the moment so he didn't run off. Just trust me that it was neat to see them moving about.

All in all it was a good day to spend as a family--even if it was stressful. We got home late, everyone crashed and apparently talked quite a bit about the fun they had during church the next day. So I suppose we can call it successful.

YES THEY ARE--A BUNCH OF MONKEYS!!