Zoo Days

For my birthday this year Hazel bought me a membership to the Oregon Zoo. We try to go at least once a week, weather permitting - I'm not going to take her there when it's raining buckets or freezing cold. So far she LOVES it! She gets to see the real animals that she sees in the books, or that we do baby signs for. She has a look of awwe on her face when she sees each animal, and most of hte pictures I have are her facing the exhibit with her hands on the glass, peering in at the animal. We don't try to do the whole zoo each visit, we just focus on one area and we usually stay around 2 hours, which is enough time for her to be out and running around so that she gets a good nap, and it's enough time for me to be chasing her around. Starting after Thanksgiving is the annual Zoo Lights festival, my favorite holiday tradition. The zoo gets decorated in cute light displays and you can see some of the animals and ride the lighted zoo train. It's just a lot of fun!