More To Do At The Zoo!

We had such a great day at the zoo today!

Brian had the day off, so we headed up to the Oregon Zoo. Nora has had a cold for several weeks, and even though we went to Oma and Opa's, she hasn't spent a long "stroller day" out in the elements for a few weeks now.

So this morning when we realized the weather was nice, Brian was off, and Nora was feeling better, we better pack a lunch and head for the zoo!

One of my favorite things is watching Nora and her Daddy discover new things. Every time we take her to the zoo, there's just that much more cognition in Nora as she watches people and animals more.

Anything with a tank with animals going by sparks her interest!

And of course, there's Daddy Disney. I call him that because to Nora, he's just The Most Wonderful Place On Earth.

There's nothing quite like seeing her just beam like she does at her Daddy. I actually got a big ol' lump in my throat as I took this picture.
I've also realized that my daughter doesn't look a darn thing like me sometimes!

When we were at Oma and Opa's house (Brian's parents) -- Oma got out some baby books of the kids, and the pictures of Brian's baby pictures were amazing.

"It's like my genes weren't involved at all," I told his Mom to more than a few laughs as we realized my daughter is some sort of clone between my Mother-in-law's father and various other sides of the M. family too.

I mean sure, I had her, so I "contributed". But you'd have thought I was merely the host to the DNA known simply as the M. Family Search and Destroy Genes.

None of mine apparently came through -- at least not yet!

Near the end of our time at the zoo, we went down to the "grassy knoll" as I call it -- a grassy ampitheatre near the elephant exhibit, where they do a Birds of Prey exhibition. It was so neat to watch Nora register with a couple of the larger birds as they flew over.

We even got to see a Bald Eagle!

It was funny too as Brian was wearing his Obama shirt. It's amazing to me how one man (Obama, not Brian) can raise such a reaction from people. At one point, a couple with their kids was walking towards Brian, and the man in the family was just BEAMING at Brian, so much so that it freaked him out a bit.

It took Brian a while to realize the guy was smiling at him because of his Obama shirt. Believe me, with Obama you get a reaction where you either want to be that person's friend, or you realize that they sure as heck don't like it!

But the good reactions have outweighed the bad, even with the kooky neighbor we have!

More on that later...