Spotted something hairy at the zoo....

I enjoyed a day at the Cincinnati zoo with the family on Saturday. I'm not usually a fan of the zoo (Cincinnati or other) Crowds drive me nuts! I can hardly stand to get groceries, let alone deal with a bunch of goofy people stopping whenever and wherever they like. Annoying children hollering for whatever they can't have. The smell.....ummm the smell of fresh manure from small to large animals. Nothing compares. The heat during the summer is usually enough to make you miserable walking around for hours in it. My family (parents, aunts, uncles and their heathen children) usually make me batty as well, but they couldn’t go this time. The fact that they didn’t go may have been the reason for our good trip as well. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family……but there is always some sort of drama that causes tempers to flare or feelings to get hurt. This trip was totally different though. Yes, the annoying people are still there and I cringed a few times at the cries of some spoiled little brat, and the smells were still there too. However, the kids had so much fun, that it carried over to my spirit. I was able to enjoy the simplicity of seeing a baby rhino playing in the mud, watch a white tiger eat his “steak” and be amazed at how an elephant uses his trunk to eat an apple or banana. It seemed that all the animals were out in the open for us to see (which is another complaint I have-I have never seen so many animals at the Columbus zoo out of their den as I did at Cincinnati). Kids can have an amazing effect on us. The little things that we don’t often take the time to notice, or have become so used to, amaze and wonder our children. It is infectious. The weather was nice, a little warm but not unbearably so. Probably the worst part of the trip was that my 2 year old son woke up with a head cold, which made him a bit disagreeable if we didn’t keep on the go to see more new and amazing animals. His favorite part was the elephant. He LOVES these creatures, and I can’t tell you why. He loves to chase his sister around and make elephant (or occasionally lion) noises. So all in all, it was an excellent trip. We thoroughly enjoyed time together this weekend. Oh yeah, and to get to the name of this blog, I think I may have spied one of my clan mates…..Hog…where you in town? I took a picture of this guy…is it you?