The National Zoo

Last Monday, my Mom, sister, nephew and I (with the kids) went to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington DC. Surprisingly, I had never been to this zoo before, so I was really excited to see it myself. My friend, Renee, and her family met us there since they lived relatively close to that park. Madeline didn't know Emily was going to meet us, so she was real excited when she saw her. They both ran to each other and hugged:
This is the first thing we saw. We wanted to walk to one end of the zoo and work our way back, but this little guy kept popping out and calling Ethan's name, so we had to stop to say hi:

So glad the Manns brought this huge stroller!! My kids got a lot of use out of it!

Thankfully, there were a lot of extra helpful hands around this day:

A lot of the animals were napping or hiding while we were there, so things like this excited Madeline:

Here's an example of what we saw a lot of:

Here's Madeline and Ethan checking out the Panda!!

Ethan's allergies were really giving him a hard time since we arrived in MD, so he needed a lot of extra cuddle time. I actually put in a call to the pediatrician this day to get some more advice (aside from not spending a day outside, heehee).

Renee went to take a picture of Ethan and I near the elephant, but at that exact moment the elephant started doing something quite amazing. I can only imagine how large his bladder is:

OK, Take 2:

Not sure what they're looking at, but they love it:

A Marmoset?

Winding down:

Ethan was trying to feed this little guy:

Shortly before we left, I wanted to get a picture of the kids in their matching shirts Marmie got. Aunt Amy was holding the popsicle she bought Madeline and kept teasing Madeline that she was going to eat it:

Madeline was reeeeally getting worried Aunt Amy was going to take a bite:

Eventually, it wasn't funny anymore:

Madeline was thrilled to have her ice cream back and now I could attempt a picture with the kiddies.

Cheeeeeeese:

Cousin Taylor took a bit of a snooze. The next morning he woke up with rosy cheeks which later found out was Fifths Disease. Poor lil guy :( It sure didn't keep him down though!

The last thing we stopped at on our way out was the Barn. Madeline really perked up when she saw a barn!

They couldn't believe they were so close to a REAL cow!!

Donkeys:

I love farms.

We had a really nice day at the zoo. The weather was beautiful and the company was great. The kids and I enjoyed it so much, I'm planning on joining the zoo in SC when we visit next week :)