Holladay Happenings: Visit to the Zoo with Aunt Maggan

On Monday afternoon, the boys and I picked up my aunt Maggan at the airport. She arrived here from Sweden via a quick stopover in New Jersey where she caught up with Johan and his family. Yesterday we ventured out to the Minnesota zoo and had a great time. We managed to visit all of the exhibits, played on one of the playgrounds, ate lunch and had ice-cream. Kai loves animals so a visit to the zoo was perfect for him. He looked attentively at many of the animals and was particularly excited by the farm animal section. Whereas Noah didn't want the animals anywhere near him, Kai was more than willing to pet them and was just thrilled to be in such close proximity. (It's the same way with the neighborhood dogs - Noah is terrified of them, but Kai can't get enough of them.) Noah was much more interested in seeing the animals than at any previous visit. Usually, he just runs from one exhibit to the next, but this time he actually took time to stop, observe and comment. When I asked him which animals were his favorite, he said, "Pandas and elephants" - we saw many, many animals, but there are no pandas or elephants at the Minnesota Zoo! One funny moment happened when Noah was looking at a lynx; an older child was telling his dad that the lynx was male. Noah said, "No, that's not mail!!" and when the child insisted that, yes, the lynx was a male, Noah got quite agitated. So I explained to Noah that there is the mail we get at home in the mailbox and there is the male that means boy which seemed to deescalate the situation. Next time we go to the zoo we'll bring a change of clothes and play in the water sprinkler area!