The final days of vacation...Thursday!

What a fabulous week!!

Thursday was a great day! We surprised the kids and took them to Detroit Zoo! We usually go to the Zoo the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, but we have other (surprise) plans for that! :) So we packed up the van, and Emma and Bradlee followed the GPS to get us to the Zoo!

HA HA! Just kidding! We did follow the GPS, though. Emma guessed and guessed, and as soon as she saw the Detroit Zoo water tower, she knew where we were headed! :) "This is an AWESOME surprise, Mama and Daddy!!!!!" :)

When I was little, my grandparents (Dad's mom and dad, Snookie and Papa), had a membership for the Zoo, so when we would visit them in the summer, the Zoo was ALWAYS on our schedule!

Their membership was the "penguin" level, so they told us they adopted two penguins, which they named "Stosh" and "Sophie". Every time we went to the Zoo, we went to the Penguinarium first, and last: to say "Hi!" to Stosh and Sophie, and then to say "good bye!"!! Let me tell you, every time we went in there, there were Stosh and Sophie, two King penguins standing there as soon as we walked in! How fabulous! We have continued this with our kids, and even before we had kids and went to the Zoo!! We went to the penguinarium first on Thursday, and sure enough, Stosh and Sophie were waiting for us! :)

Tony is terrified of snakes, so I take the kids into the reptile house. I'm exactly keen on them, but I at least know they are behind cages! LOL This is one of the first times we've seen the alligator out of the water...and he was HUGE!!!

Emma loved looking at him, but Bradlee wasn't too sure. Once I made him touch the glass, he was okay...but still kept a firm grip on my shirt! :)

The greeter at the front entrance was telling us they had a new giraffe delivered in June, and she is now about a year old! We made sure we went out to see her, too!

One of my favorite exhibits at the Zoo is the polar bear exhibit! Ever since they redid it, it's just fabulous! You can see the bears outside, as well as in the water through glass, and even and entire glass tunnel! It's definitely one of Emma's and Tony's favorite parts, and now that Bradlee's old enough to actually know what a bear is, it's one of his, too!!! Tony and Emma got separated from Bradlee and me, so they didn't get to see this polar bear, named "Lee" in or out of the water, but Bradlee and I were able to see him jump right in to go for a swim!!!

We packed a picnic lunch to take, since it would basically take a second mortgage to afford lunch at the Zoo, so we found a nice picnic table and enjoyed our lunch! Bradlee LOVED digging into the fruit we brought!

Finally, one of my favorite pictures from last year's trip to the Zoo is one of Emma and Tony standing in front of the flamingos, with one foot in the air (since that's how flamingos sleep!). They are exact images of each other and I just LOVE that picture! It's now going to be an annual picture...and this year, Bradlee wanted to join in, too, but he had a hard time getting his foot in the air...

We always get a family picture in front of the "bear fountain", too...here's this year's picture! Bradlee was facing backwards in EVERY picture! He was fascinated not only with the bears under the fountain, but with the ducks swimming around beneath us!!! It was a great day to go to the Detroit Zoo!!!