See animals.

If you were to ask Jonah, that is what we did yesterday.

Setting our expectations nice and low, we headed off to the Valley Zoo. We knew that it would be nothing like the Calgary Zoo, or even Joel's beloved Milwaukee Zoo, but it's all we've got. The weather was finally nice, so we packed up the boys and headed out yesterday.

Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. The animal enclosures were a little sad, but there was plenty of greenery and open space for Jonah to run in. We also went on a weekday and it was like a ghost town, which we really liked.

After checking out the alpaca, we squished into a tiny train car for a ride around the zoo. Benett's face really sums up the whole ride. Jonah would beg to differ, but he is three....





After that, we went for some ice cream. Jonah shared a tiger tiger cone with mom and Joel shared some banana split Ittibitz (think Dotz in the US) with Jonah. You can see how our priorities were laid out before we went to the zoo.




Finally, we took Jonah to see Lucy the elephant. I think Lucy is autistic. She just rocked back and forth between the threshold of the elephant house, trying to pick up a stick off the ground. I've never seen an elephant do that. Maybe it's her "artistic side" when she isn't busy painting pictures for rich folks.



A visit with the tiger was next on the list, then off to see the camel. Jonah was sure to yell "Hi!" to grandma and grandpa Harstad while he looked at this attractive creature.





Next up was lots of running around. The sun was out, it was hot, and Jonah had energy to burn. He didn't have enough to run all the way to the paddleboats before it closed, so Joel strapped him in the stroller and off we went. But not before Joel took a quick nap in the stroller.





We arrived at the paddleboats just in time to find out the girl operating the "ride" had already cashed out, so lucky us got to ride for free. :) Jonah and Joel went together while Benett and I watched.





We finished up fairly quickly after that, partly because there wasn't a whole lot to see as far as animals go. Unfortunately, the food stand was already closed, so we headed back to town and grabbed some DQ. Nutritious, hey?



After we got home and ate, Jonah went straight to bed and talked about how he went to "dee umoes" and rode the "choo choo" and the "wawa boat" before he nodded off to sleep. It's so cute to listen to him through the monitor as he recites his day. Sweet dreams, kiddo.