Perfect weather for a trip to the zoo

I grew up in Illinois - NOT the ideal climate, in my opinion! The weather was only good for a few months out of the year, the rest of the time we were either freezing in the bitter cold or sweating in the sauna-like heat. I was so grateful to got to BYU where I didn't even feel the need to wear a coat in the winter. My best move ever, was to sunny southern California! I love that we can enjoy the outdoors all year long, I love that there are so many things to choose from, and I especially love spending that time with my family.

This past week's temperatures have been in the 80's. Since our last passes to the zoo and wild animal park expired a couple of years ago, Monday we felt that we had gone long enough without a visit to either place. So we loaded up the kids, picked up Dee, and headed to San Diego. You never know what to expect when you visit the zoo, it's usually hit or miss. This time - it was a hit!

First we went to the sea lion show which is always great.

After the show, we took the tram to the top of the zoo and checked out all the animals we were the most interested in on the way down. Dee's choice was to see the pandas. The zoo had 3 pandas on exhibit and they were all extremely active. This is on account of the pre-mating ritual of spreading their scent around to let the opposite sex know they're there. I've NEVER seen pandas so active!
Rick's choice is always Cat Canyon. He especially loves the jaguars. During this trip, the cats were right in the front of the exhibits and spent quite a bit of time pacing back and forth. One of the cats seemed especially fond of young children in strollers and would follow them as they walked by - I guess it's a good thing that there's a strong fence between them.

We all love to see the monkeys. This time they weren't all that active, but we still enjoyed a few of the monkey exhibits.

Throughout the day there were different zookeeper chats where they brought some of the animals up close and shared interesting facts about them. The kids all got the chance to pet a chinchilla and they couldn't believe how soft it was!
The part that I was most looking forward to was seeing the koala bears. The zoo was doing a special "Koalapalooza" event the whole weekend and they had all kinds of activities geared around these cuddly looking animals.

At the end of our visit, Dee let each of the kids choose a favorite stuffed animal. Erin picked a black jaguar that Rick tried to steal, Bryant chose a meerkat, and Parker chose an okapi. Thanks, Dee!