Como Zoo

So we have these awesome next door neighbors - Tom and Joanne. (Though the title "neighbor" doesn't do them justice because they are way more than just neighbors.) They've more so crossed over into the "family" category. It's their names that Asher randomly calls out the door ("Pom! Jih-yan! Out there??") . When they (especially Tom) come home from work, Asher sprints faster than we ever see him move so he can be the first to give Tom high fives and a good welcome home greeting. It's because of them that our kids are now 'dog people'.  They moved here from New Jersey, taught us that a dog is really a "doo-awg" , pizza is actually a "pie", and they love on our kids like they were their own.

This week they have some of their family visiting from out East and invited us to go up to Como Zoo with them. Also happened to be on a day that we had our little friend, Elana, with us for the day. Five kids at a very packed zoo. Whew! There was a lot of head counting...


"1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ok, we're good!"

"1, 2, 3, 4...Jeremiah? Jeremiah? Phew...5"

"1, 2, 3, 4, wait...where's...oh...5"

"1, 2, 3...Mike, do you have Savannah?! Oh good...4, 5"

 

Fortunately our kids are not runaways, but we were still on hyper-hover-parent mode.

Until the end.

When we lost Asher.

Only once. And thankfully "Grammy" saw him escape and she made a mad dash for him.
(all while this mama was having a panic attack for about 7 seconds - which, by the way, felt far more like hours!)

 

 

We packed a picnic lunch with us, but leave to Asher to mooch off someone else's plate.

 

(Dude, I don't blame him, Joanne had fries! Totally trumps mommy's almond butter and jelly sandwich.)

 

 

I wish I knew what Tom had asked Jeremiah. He sure is putting a lot of thought into his answer, ha!

 

 

 

I had asked the kids which animal they were most excited to see while we were there. Brooklyn didn't want to leave without seeing the turtles.

 

 

Jeremiah didn't really have much of a preference. He was just excited to be there.

 

 

And Savannah...our animal-loving Savannah has just been obsessed with adored giraffes since she was old enough to voice her opinion. I don't think it would have been a successful zoo day without seeing those giraffes.