Santa Barbara Zoo

Stacey and the girls had Monday off for President's Day, so we decided to do something special.

We got up and out early and headed north to the Santa Barbara Zoo. We love this zoo, but because it's over an hour away, we haven't been often. Cora went over the summer with Camp Clarita, but my last trip was with Elissa and Harvey when they were two years old. Stacey hadn't been since Cora was a baby!

Cora took the photo of the elephant pulling food from the rope-net bag.

After seeing the elephants, penguins and flamingos, we took a play break on the "ant hill," a place Cora was excited to revisit after her trip in the summer. The children use pieces of cardboard to slide down a hill covered in fake grass.

Violet soon got the hang of it, and Cora eventually was trying her hand at surfing, or sliding down standing up.

 Then, we ate a picnic lunch on the grass while watching a children's stage show about dinosaurs.

Stace broke open the last bag of Hula Hoops from our most recent trip to England for this most special occasion.

 On our way to look at more animals, we passed a hill that was just begging to be rolled down. We all did a bit of rolling; just once for me and Stace, though. It makes you really dizzy when you're grownup.

 Cora also took this photo of a Fennec Fox - so cute with those enormous ears!

 The Los Angeles Zoo has had no lions since the last one died, so it was nice to see the SB Zoo's lions.

 Another snack break, and we captured a photo of the cutest homo sapiens we've ever seen. We fell in love and took them home with us. Shhhhh! Don't tell the zoo keepers!

 The zoo has two lovey aviaries, with some beautiful exotic birds. Sadly, Violet didn't feel like smiling the one time we had a passerby take a family photo. At least she faced the camera.

On our way home, we reached Ventura just in time to watch the sun dip into the sea. We are so blessed to see such beauty.

 More wild birds - sandpipers, in their natural environment.

We wanted food from different eateries at Ventura Harbor, so we picnicked in the car.

What a fabulous day! We managed to make it home before 7:45, just in time for bed.