We had a totally fabulous time at the Walk on the Wild Side at the San Diego Zoo on Saturday. The kids were awesome! We had to wake them up at 6:15 a.m. to get there with time to spare before the walk which began at 7:30 a.m. It takes us about 20 minutes to get to the zoo. It was a 2.5 mile walk throughout the ups and downs in the zoo. We kept a steady pace and had a great time. The boys were troopers and Aubrey was a great sidekick. It was so great to see the animals out early. Seeing the lions, elephants, and rhinos roaming was a highlight for me. The boys stopped to take a peek at the polar bears during the walk. Hiking the hill to get to the polar bear exhibit was the toughest part of the walk. We got a few free goodies during the walk. Near the end of the walk, volunteers were throwing out toy snakes and beaded necklaces at us as we walked to "YOU! You belong at the zoo, the San Diego Zoo!" Hearing that little tune sure brought me back to my childhood! Another fun thing about the walk was all the bands playing throughout the zoo. One of our favorites was this solo musician strumming his guitar and singing, "welcome to the water station, we're here for your hydration, take a cup and walk on...walk on..." I guess you just had to be there to appreciate it. It was hilarious. After the race, we enjoyed some yummy treats, fruit and Pat & Oscar's breadsticks. Aaron went back for seconds on the breadsticks and now asks to go to Pat & Oscar's. For those of you that aren't familiar with the restaurant, they serve pizza, pasta, salads, and breadsticks. We loaded up on free t-shirts, toothbrushes, pens, bandaids, stickers, etc... It was really fun to see Connor strap on his shoulder bag and load up on the freebies. They also had lots of animals up close and personal. After hanging out with the sponsors and getting our fill of freebies, Mike and the kids went into the zoo while I headed home to attend our ward's super saturday event. Post to follow. Here's a few pictures from the event. This will for sure be a new SD family tradition for us.
The lioness perched right next to the fence and watched us.
We made it to the lion exhibit at just as the king of the beasts climbed up on his rock to make his presence known. It was awesome.
The boys spotted the jaguar.
"Hello tall man!" exclaimed Aaron. He's the one who was tossing out the necklaces.
The boys raced across the finish line. I'm so glad it didn't turn out into a fight about who one. I think they tied and they were happy for each other.
Mike snapped the rest of these pictures when they went back into the zoo to hang out for a few hours. A free day pass came with the 5k entrance fee. Since we already have the year passes, it didn't matter but I thought it was a good deal.
My dad came down to Rubidoux, CA this past weekend for his high school reunion and mentioned that he was going out to visit his dad on Sunday. I was eager to meet up with them and have the chance to visit with my dad's father. We've pretty much been estranged from our grandfather for our entire lives. I met him about 10 years ago when Aaron was just an infant. Since then, I've sent them christmas cards each year but we've never had the chance to meet up with him again until now. We drove out to Riverside after church. It's a little over one hour to get there. The kids did great. My grandfather and his wife Gerri are nearing their 90th year. Leonard has recently had some serious health problems, heart surgery, back surgery, and he's in a weakened condition. Gerri is quite hard of hearing and kept apologizing for herself. She kept saying, "I'm so old. I'm sorry I'm such a pill." I felt so bad for her. She just seemed so sad. They were very glad that we came to see them. It was really sweet. They expressed their appreciation for our christmas cards over the years. You just never know how the smallest things affect people. The kids warmed up to both of them real quick and I was really proud of Connor for keeping control of himself. The subject of death and dying has been a very sensitive subject around our house lately especially for Aaron. He's been driven to tears about the subject on several occasions so I was a little nervous when he came in and observed how old his great grandparents were. But overall, we had a really nice visit and I came away feeling like we should definitely make another visit soon. Dad and Elke are coming to visit with us on Friday. We're looking forward to it. 
