Right up your Alley: Smithsonian National Zoo in DC

We decided to go to the zoo today, one because church was on TV and I could Tivo it and 2 as a early birthday present for J. So we drove up thinking if there was a lot of traffic we'd ride the metro which is what we did last year. The boys absolutely LOVE trains and that is what J wanted to do for his birthday last year was ride the metro. But for those of you who've been to the zoo via the metro know its ALOT of walking and when I say alot I mean TONS & TONS of walking. We didn't realize until we left from the zoo's parking lot and drove back down Connecticut Ave just how far we'd walked pushing a stroller full of kid and cooler and diapers too, don't laugh they are heavy. (: Then walked down the hill of the zoo to climb back up it several times to see the different animals. And because we'd left late last year we didn't get to see everything we wanted to and ended up getting on the wrong metro train and yes ending up in rush hour traffic on a Friday.

This is a picture from last year.

But this year was much better, the park was busier then last year but the walking was nothing. We parked in in the middle parking lot which allowed us to see the animals in the bottom of the zoo then climb the 90 degree angle of a hill and see the rest then walk back down the hill to get back to the car. Also the zoo has live webcams that allow you to view some of the animals throughout the day. The boys love to look at their site on a regular basis and see the pandas so I knew that we had to see them this year since we'd missed them last year.

I don't know if you can make it out very well but this is my boys watching the panda that was outside. He was being a little anti-social, just kidding I think he/she was looking for the other panda that of course was inside.

I have to thank this one lady that was there for this great comment because every animal I took pictures of wanted to show me their behind. At least when I snapped the shutter. But this is that panda. And the ones below are just cute pictures I love of the boys with a panda statue and wooden panda. Yes I know they look tired but thats because it was at the end of the day. We are almost ready to head back down the hill.

There were a few other animals that we just couldn't miss. One being the elephants, since the zoo's webcam has been offline for a while now we just couldn't miss them. The boys talked about seeing the elephants the whole way up and almost the whole way back. So here a few great pictures G got of the boys with them. Even though neither boy wanted to turn their back to the elephants for fear it might trumpet. They didn't want to hear them at all just see them. Go figure.

We also saw the lions, tigers, and bears oh my. Sorry couldn't resist. Anyhow, we also got to see the gorillas, otters, orangutans lots of reptiles and even a few zebras and cheetahs as well.

And these are just a few pictures below that I wanted to share because I like them.

This one is just too funny to me, we were stopping to take a "Capri Sun" break and the boys both wanted to sit down. So I had to take this picture of my wonderful little men. Happy Birthday J!