Zoo and Carousels

Without fail, John always ruins my plans.

On Saturday, he was supposed to be in Rochester all day, and I had mapped out the day thusly:
-Girls and I weed the garden in the burning sun for many hours
-Mop the floor, do laundry, etc., etc.
-Take children to Greenwood to swim and/or watch a movie together and eat mountains of freshly buttered popcorn, depending on the weather, so their memories of childhood and their mother aren't completely unfavorable

Sounds pretty good, right? But, nooo, Mister Grinchy-pants had to surprise me by not leaving us for the entire day.  Instead, he woke up early and made a fancy breakfast before telling us to put on our bathing suits and get in the van.

Which, incidentally, explains why we're all wearing bathing suits under our frocks at the local zoo.





 


Mom O. gave us a year's joint pass for the zoo and children's museum, but this was the first time we'd gone to the zoo this summer.


 


As happenstance had it, free face painting met us midway up the hill, so John and I paraded around with these creatures for the rest of the visit.

We began our trip to the zoo with a go-round on the free carousel, so it only made sense to end it with another.

 En route to our next unknown, John stopped at the gas station, and I failed at taking a picture of all the rest of us.  If only that big, red face hadn't blocked out everybody, it would have worked.

Next stop?  The third of the area's six free carousels.  (We went to a second park/carousel before this one, but I forgot to tell you.  Now you know.)  John took Zeke for a walk, but not before giving us orders to go to the playground, climb up the ladder, zoom through the tube slide and then proceed to the sidewalk where we were to ogle the vendors' goods.

Step 1:  The tube slide.

I shot through, too.

Annika and Luci disobeyed while I was sliding down.  Papa did NOT say to shimmy up the poles!

Step 2:  Ogle the vendors' wares.    That we did, and we found widjiwat transport!

We also matched clay scat to its owner, and Piper got to pet a skunk skin.   Poor stinker...

 

Step 3:  After ogling the wares, John commanded us to ride the third free carousel of the day. 

 These collages are from the second and third carousels combined.    I took a picture of the "Rules of the Carousel" sign at our second carousel of the day because!  I thought!  all the! exclamation! marks were! Funny!!! Plus, it states that we weren't to horse around.  

 

What's the Grinchy-pants going to pull from his pocket next?!